AS the debate about China-made products continues unabated, people’s perceptions of Chinese made vehicles are inevitably linked to low quality and questionable safety.
However, there are a few Chinese carmakers that have proven themselves in the international market by winning numerous awards.
Great Wall Motor Co Ltd is one of them. The group is China’s largest sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and pickup manufacturer. It owns two brands, namely Haval and Great Wall.
Haval focuses on SUVs, while Great Wall delves more in passenger cars, besides SUVs and pickups.
Haval, in particular, has won considerable awards over the years, including several CCTV Independent SUV of the year awards, 15th China Design Patent and XCar’s Best SUV of 2015.
In Malaysia, Great Wall Motor is represented by Go Automobile Manufacturing Sdn Bhd.
As a licenced manufacturer of Great Wall Motor vehicles, Go Auto has launched the Haval M4 Elite to add to its Haval M4 line-up.
We had the opportunity to test drive the M4 Elite, a B-segment front-wheel drive SUV that runs on a 1.5 litre naturally-aspirated VVT MPI four-cylinder petrol engine with a six-speed automated manual transmission (AMT) gearbox.
The engine provides 105 horsepower at 6,000 rpm and 138 Nm of torque at 4,200 rpm. The M4 Elite is about 3,961mm long and 1,728mm in width, with a wheelbase of 2,383mm. It comes with 16-inch two-tone alloy wheels.
It also comes with halogen projector headlights with LED positioning lamps and LED daytime running lights near the fog lamps. It looks like a smaller Range Rover Evoque. It weighs about 1,106kg and has a trunk space of 330 litres.
On the interior, the M4 Elite comes with a video recorder located near the rear-view mirror, a rear-view camera with integrated SmartTAG reader, leather seats, cruise control, a touchscreen navigation system with a DVD player and Bluetooth connectivity, an around-view monitor, steering wheel with multi controls and a centre armrest.
The safety features of the M4 Elite include anti-lock brakes (ABS) with Electronic Brakeforce Distribution (EBD) and brake assist, dual airbags, electronic stability programme, traction control and Hill Start Assist.
The Haval M4 Elite comes with a seven-year, unlimited mileage manufacturer warranty and is priced at RM72,339.41, on-the-road without insurance. There are six colours to choose from and customised car wraps are available upon request.
Haval claimed that the M4 Elite has a top speed of 172 kph and takes 12.8 seconds to sprint from zero to 100 kph. It also stated that the SUV consumes an average of six litres per 100 km.
THE DRIVE
We were impressed with the features that come with the M4 Elite — the video recorder, an around-view monitor, the comfortable leather seats, the touchscreen DVD player, lower fuel consumption and all the safety features.
It didn’t take long to realise how M4 was labelled as “the most value for money in the SUV segment”. We find that at that price, Haval has positioned itself well to give our national carmakers especially a run for their money.
We took the M4 Elite on highways and city roads, some with rough tracks and potholes. The leather seats are more comfortable than most national car models and some of the Korean makes.
The suspension absorbed potholes and rough road conditions well. But it lacks grip on moderate speed corners, as it felt a little wobbly. It took us a while to like the AMT system. The AMT requires the driver to switch gears manually without engaging the clutch to have full control over the gear ratio. Leave it on “D” or ‘Drive’ mode, and it felt like a loss of power every time it upshifts.
To overcome that issue, the driver needs to anticipate the gear shifts and ease off the throttle when the car upshifts. It is because the AMT works just like a regular manual transmission, just that the clutch is computer-controlled.
The M4 Elite has a fuel tank capacity of 45 litres. While cruising about 80kph to 110kph, the tyre and wind noise is noticeable. The engine sounds even louder, especially above 3,000 rpm. We managed to drive about 200km, recording about 7.4 litres per 100km on an average city drive and about 5.5 litres per 100km on the highway.
The around-view monitor made parking the SUV easy. However, it was short of range indicator to alert the driver how close the SUV is with any nearby obstruction when parking.
Another aspect of the M4 Elite that Haval did a great job at is making the rear-view mirror to act as a SmartTag. All Touch ‘n Go users can just leave the card there and drive through the SmartTag lanes.
The M4 Elite has room for improvements. For an average Asian size, the M4 fits the occupant very well. But for taller driver, it is not friendly enough. The SUV lacks headroom space and legroom space at the back seats. As the driver seat is not height adjustable, taller driver will find it hard to fit in the SUV even with the steering height adjusted to the highest mark.
The trunk space is another aspect Haval must take note. It could barely fit a large golf umbrella. We also believe that the dashboard meters should provide more information, such as average litres per 100km and average speed. As it stands, it only gives the current litres per 100km reading.
Last but not least are the speakers of the M4 Elite. The DVD player is good. It even comes with amplifier-liked adjustment on top of the standard bass, mid and treble settings. However, the speakers fail to produce solid sound. All the functions provided are wasted as they only play a basic sound.