WATCH: Haval H6 GT more than just a pretty face

Haval has brought a host of new offerings to the South African roads over the past few years, and they have been well received by the buying public, but I had no opinion to offer as I had not driven one until now.

Watch the Haval H6 GT go

But that has all changed when we were recently delivered their latest high performance H6 GT for road testing. I didn’t waste a moment and whisked it off to Gerotek Testing Facilities to put it through its paces.

But before I get to that, I must address the elephant in the room when it comes to the perception of Chinese cars.

My job is to be objective and offer objective opinion be it good or bad, but my car-mad daughter has no such responsibility, and the words out of her mouth are what she is thinking and done so without any filter.

ALSO READ: BAIC gets serious with aggressive new Beijing X55

When I told her we were getting a Haval H6 GT, her first comment was that she wasn’t interested in driving some Chinese junk.

But then the car arrived, and just the nose was peeping out beyond our garages, and she had a glance and then she jumped up out to have a closer look as the Hu Grey body colour had caught her eye.

And before you knew it, she was all over the Haval H6 GT thanks to the sporty additions of a body kit with side skirts and rear diffuser, carbon fibre inserts, roof-mounted spoiler and lip spoiler and must have black alloys.

On the inside she fell in love with the Alcantara clad interior and sports seats, as well as the cockpit area and setup. Now she just wanted to drive it. First perception changed, but Dad flatly refused because of her earlier comments.

She continued to harass me for a drive, but said I would only agree if she got up early and came to Gerotek with me because I needed help with pics and social media. The terms of the deal were agreed, and she got to drive around in the cool looking H6 GT, and The Citizen Motoring got its film crew.

Haval H6 GT a respectable sprinter

On paper the H6 GT has the right numbers in 155 kW of power and 325 Nm of torque from its 2.0-litre turbocharged engine, while it also runs a seven-speed DCT box down to all four wheels. And it has Race Mode, so I was expecting good things.

Strangely enough, there was no launch control function that I could find, yet the Haval H6 HEV (Hybrid Electric Vehicle) fuel-saving model that our Motoring Editor, Jaco van der Merwe, will be telling you all about, has one.

ALSO READ: Chery Tiggo 4 Pro gains more standard features

It was good on the outright performance runs and posted respectable times with a 0 to 100 km/h in 8.34 seconds, while hitting just under 180 km/h in 1 km of tar, but it was when trying to live with the H6 GT every day that things became a bit fuzzy.

In Normal mode, the accelerator is not very responsive, and this makes the car feel like it has a bit of turbo lag. Put it into sport or race and then everything becomes too sensitive and jerky.

Rough around the edges

You would have to adapt your driving style a little to smoothen out these rough edges. If only a bit more attention could be paid to how the engine and the modes interact with the gearbox and accelerator, the Haval H6 GT would be a better car to drive every day.

Talking of which, the claimed fuel consumption is 8.4 litres per 100 km, but I got nowhere near that and averaged 11.4-litres per 100 km.

I honestly think a lot of this is down to the fine tuning I just mentioned, because on the open road it was really light on fuel as expected, but once in the suburbs, the fuel consumption went up exponentially.

So much so that the long-term average of the H6 GT was sitting over 13.0-litres per 100 km, and a car with this type of power in 2022, should not consume fuel like this.

What is does have for 2022 is heated seats, a 10.25-inch digital instrument cluster, wireless charging, and a 12.3-inch central display, 360-degree view camera system, Adaptive Cruise Control with Intelligent cruise, Intelligent cornering, traffic jam assist, Pre-collision warning with automatic emergency braking, Lane Departure Alert. Lane Keeping Assist and Blind spot detection with Rear Cross Traffic Alert.

Conclusion

Priced at R629 950, the Haval H6 GT makes a strong bid for your money as it comes equipped with a full house offering of luxury, safety and styling, that also includes a solid warranty and service plan but is let down by the fine-tuning touches.

Road test data sheet