Niggles aside, seven-seater Jetour X70 Plus great value for money

When the brand new Jetour X70 Plus arrived on my driveway, I couldn’t help thinking why Chery International would bring in another SUV brand into our market? Aside from the parent brand Chery, the Chinese carmaker already has Omoda and Jaecoo playing in a segment that is offering SUVs that might look different but essentially do the same thing.

The first answer I could come up with was that they are not here to fight each other for your money. They are here to try and lure you out of a Toyota, Hyundai, Kia, VW, Ford and whoever else’s showrooms you can think of. You must remember, almost every sale today of a Chinese SUV, is a sale that not too long ago would have gone to the manufacturers I have just mentioned.

The second answer, which is a massive part of their success strategy, is that they are offering well priced vehicles that come fitted with an impressive array of luxury features and tech on board, all as standard fitment.

Jetour X70 Plus hits the spot

The Jetour X70 Plus is just such a vehicle, in that it is a mid-size SUV that comes in at just R484 900 and has plenty space as useable seven-seater. It’s not as lavish as a range-topping Omoda C9, or as pricey as a Jaecoo J7. And as such it falls neatly somewhere between a Chery Tiggo 7 Pro and Tiggo 8 Pro. There is a small gap in the segment that is getting perfectly filled by this SUV.

Perhaps I should mix the positives up with the negatives as I go along. There is a list of things that ranged from being quirky in typical Chinese fashion, that most new owners will probably live with, to some things that really frustrated me.

I thought the look of the Jetour X70 Plus, though very Audi-like, which is not a bad thing, and nothing like its smaller Lamborghini Urus-looking Dashing sibling, was not bad at all. Many complimented the car during the week The Citizen Motoring sampled it.

Cabin a tech-fest

The same continued when it came to the interior, where you get the likes of six-way electric adjustment for the driver’s seat only, synthetic leather, a 10.25-inch instrument cluster and infotainment system, wireless charging, a panoramic glass sunroof and a third row of seats that can accommodate small humans.

You also get keyless entry, 360-degree panoramic view parking assist, automatic LED headlights, an electric tailgate, automatic rain sensors and an additional two speakers as this was the top of the range Deluxe derivative.

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But the interface and operation of the infotainment system and instrument cluster via Mercedes-Benz like haptic buttons was not intuitive at all. I couldn’t understand what the translation of some things meant and I could not for love or money figure out if one can toggle between total mileage, to a Trip A or Trip B reading.

There was no way to see what you overall fuel consumption was because every time you turned the car off, it would reset itself. For the record, I averaged 9.6-litres per 100km for most of the time when I checked the readout before it would reset itself. So, I guess that is the number, which is not too bad for biggish SUV with an engine of modest output.

Fuel flap fumbles

Talking of which, I did have a funny, not funny moment, when I came to fuel the Jetour X70 Plus. I looked everywhere for the fuel flap release button. Under the bonnet, the tailgate, the steering column as well as trying every switch I could see.

I eventually conceded defeat and put a in a call to Jetour and asked for help. Where was it? It was moulded neatly into the side sill by the driver’s seat, and strategically hidden under the fitted carpet.
There were other quirks like the inductive charging pad. Despite having cooling holes, did not much other than heat my iPhone up and give it about 1% of charge per hour.

The Jetour X70 Plus’ aircon unit, although easy to use, offered you numbers to increase or decrease the flow of air, but the temp control just went from blue to red, with no numbers.

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Guessing game

It was the same with the speed cruise. You were not given any speed reading or increment indication as you toggled up and down. It was a guessing game until the car settled at a speed. From there you would go up or down a few clicks until you found a speed that you were comfortable with.

At the end of this review you’ll find road test data. But I only gave the Jetour X70 Plus a run at Gerotek because I had to go there to test another car. So, I wouldn’t get too flustered by the numbers. They were more than decent enough for a 115kW/230 Nm powerplant. It is the Chinese staple 1.5-litre four-cylinder turbo petrol engine, mated to a six-speed double clutch gearbox that drives he power and torque down to the front wheels.

A useless bit of information is that if you go over 170km/h the numbers change to red, and you get a warning that flashes up and tells you to slow down. The Jetour X70 Plus is said to have a claimed top speed of 180km/h, but I can tell, should ever want to do 200km/h in this car. You can because the limiter only kicks in at 200km/h real with 207km/h showing on the instrument cluster.

What is a little bit less useless and was the most annoying part of my time with a car I actually rate highly at the price, is this inability of the Chinese to get the throttle calibration right. The Jetour X70 Plus only has two modes, Sport and Eco to make matters worse.

Not much of a choice

In Eco, not much happens when you push the accelerator. When it does wake up, it does so in a leisurely fashion but will breakout into wheelspin if you are too aggressive with your inputs.

In Sport, not much happens again initially, but then the aggression kicks in earlier and the wheelspin is back.

I used Sport around town and Eco on the highway. But eventually settled for Eco everywhere because Sport always thought you were in some sort of race and would gear down on highway at the hint of throttle input or the sign of a hill. Eco was much more highway friendly. I got tired of having to navigate through the settings controlled via the infotainment system each time I wanted to change modes and let it be. Not ideal.

The Jetour X70 Plus is a great value for money. But I am going to send my CV to every Chinese manufacturer and offer to work with their translators and their engineers on this calibration stuff. When they get this right, these cars will be better to drive.

Jetour X70 Plus test data