The Jaecoo J7 is an earnest effort by Chery to break into the premium segment.
Over the last decade, we’ve seen Chinese cars go from the laughing stock of the industry to pioneers in electro-mobility. There’s no denying that Chinese EVs are some of the best in the market, especially at the price point. However, the same cannot be said about their ICE offerings. There seems to be some gap still in the dynamics, tuning, software experience, finish, and overall presentation and this has held them back from some much deserved success. At the end of the day, value for money matters a lot, but it’s the little things that matter the most. With the Jaecoo J7, I think the script is starting to be flipped. We spent almost two weeks with one of the fastest growing car models in Malaysia and here’s what we found.
Before we get too ahead of ourselves, let’s define what it is we’re dealing with. The Jaecoo J7 is a C-segment SUV. You can think of it as a competitor to the Proton X70 or maybe even the Honda CR-V. However, unlike those two, you’ve never heard of a car called the ‘J7’ and you’ve certainly not heard of a brand called ‘Jaecoo’. This is a new brand with premium aspirations from Chery. It was launched in mid-2023 and its name comes from a combination of ‘Jaeger’ and ‘Cool’. Marketing nonsense aside, Jaecoo was co-developed alongside the ‘Omoda’ sub-brand which has yet to spin-off on its own in Malaysia and likely will just be parked alongside Chery and Jaecoo showrooms for the time being. Omoda went for the more sleek, Lexus-inspired look while Jaecoo products leaned on tougher American and British luxury SUV design cues.
Underneath the veneer of sheet metal and plastic moulding, the Jaecoo J7 is mechanically similar to the Chery Tiggo 7 Pro. However, it’s not like Chery just slapped on a Jaecoo grille and called it a day. This is a complete redesign and re-conceptualisation of the product. In fact, from our extensive test drive it almost feels like there are tangible tuning differences between the cars at low speed despite sharing the same output. What you need to know for now is that the Jaecoo J7’s a very interesting way for Chery to market products – one we haven’t yet seen other Chinese brands try.
I think I quite admire the way they went about it. It takes a page out of the Lexus playbook, but instead of a focus on America the pricing and product strategy is focused on the developing market. What is it that people in this part of the world are looking for? Well in Malaysia specifically, tens of thousands of Proton X50 owners and X70 owners are looking for an upgrade that doesn’t cost that much more than what they currently own. Well, here enters a new player with an exciting looking product, great specifications, and the pricing is just right. Have the X50 or X70 been enhanced enough since their initial introductions to warrant sticking to the national car brand? Probably not. The X90 is likely too large, too expensive or too lacking in cylinders for many to consider. So, what are the options? The Honda CR-V is an excellent choice, but the one you want is a hybrid that’s close to RM200,000. The Mazda CX-5 is looking a little too stale unless driving dynamics matters to you. Perhaps EVs are still not something you’re prepared to switch to. Well, it looks like the Jaecoo J7 just found itself the perfect niche.
To be clear, no one knew what to expect with the Jaecoo’s pricing, but the selling price was a lot lower than anyone could have anticipated. At RM138,800, there’s nothing mass market from Japan that can match it. And there’s almost nothing mass market about it. The styling and feature set is positively premium. So, what’s the catch?
Well, the catch is that there seems to be some minor quality issues at the factory. Nothing so major as to render the cars undrive-able, but enough to irk a person who is used to the finer things in life. On our test unit, the sunroof squeaked on cold mornings, the left headlight had some condensation inside it, and the tailgate was a little misaligned. These are eyebrow-raising problems, but they did not affect my overall drive experience which was surprisingly positive.
The Jaecoo J7’s driving character is pretty commendable. It is skewed more towards comfort and pampers the front occupants well over really rough road surfaces. However, when loaded up, I found the rear suspension didn’t quite cushion occupants at the rear so well. In terms of high-speed performance, the engine and gearbox are perfectly capable of delivering loads of power, but the chassis doesn’t inspire confidence at higher speeds.
These are minor complaints, as in day-to-day driving the J7 performs to expectation. Its weaknesses are at the extremes, which is where ‘genuine’ premium cars tend to excel. If you’re coming in from a car that actually drives really well, you may be disappointed in everything but its NVH characteristics. But if you’re upgrading from a sub-RM100,000 car, the Jaecoo J7 is a solid option. So if there’s a catch, it’s that you have to set your expectations for the J7’s driving performance to its price point in order to have a positive experience.
In terms of design, I think the Jaecoo J7 looks handsome and upmarket and has just enough character in its daytime running light design to be instantly recognisable. That being said, there’s no running away from how derivative this design is of Land Rovers in the last two decades. Sure, Land Rover set the design template that many SUVs today are inspired by, but it looks like parts of the Evoque and Velar were traced over in creating the silhouette and external character of the J7.
There’s no shame in copying the masters, especially if you’re an amateur. It’s just something you can expect car enthusiasts to laugh at behind your back, so marks must be docked. On the other side of things, there were some deliberate choices here that we have to commend. The first is the colours they’ve chosen to offer. Our ‘Model Green’ test unit is particularly pleasant as is the Moonlight Silver option, which has a bit of a bluish tinge to it. There are also black and white options for those seeking a stealthier look.
Inside, the Jaecoo J7 is pretty tidy with a touch of ‘off-roader’ present with the faux bolts and the chunky faux metal door handles. One thing to note is that the hood handle isn’t one on the driver’s side as they’ve had to move it forward and mould it onto the door card to accommodate the power window switches – the passenger side does not suffer from this ergonomic compromise.
There are also little diagonal groves next to the door handles and for the rear passengers, these light up amber whenever there’s a risk of them opening the door as a vehicle is driving past. It’s a neat integration though I had to explain it to everyone who sat in the rear, so perhaps it’s not quite as intuitive as it should be. The other design cue that fell flat was the knurled design of the air vent knobs.
In premium cars, these are there to indicate that the air vent can be closed by twisting the knob. The grooves are supposed to signal their function. Here the groves are there to elevate the look of the cabin and the vents are shut off by pushing the vent to the extreme. There’s a miscommunication in design there. I’m also not the biggest fan of the gear selector lever, which looks like it belongs in a space ship and features the weirdest integration of manual override. Press M and the entire mapping of the transmission lever changes from ‘R, N, D’ to ‘+, -‘. This is a Chery-wide interface problem that I am not a fan of.
The cabin is largely wrapped in pleather with a geometric pattern, mirroring the largely angular motif of the exterior. To me, the angular theme doesn’t really quite pop as much as it does on the GAC GS3 Emzoom, but it doesn’t look unprofessionally done. If anything, whatever care the designers put into the cabin simply doesn’t get in the way of the experience of using the car and that can be interpreted as a success.
It may not speak to you, but it’s hard to find anything close to resembling amateur work here. The only thing that wasn’t to my taste was the piano key motif that’s printed below the air cond vents. This comes dangerously close to tacky. The boot is slightly smaller than what would be considered the class-standard but it’s still big enough for a small family. We had issues on our unit with the tonneau cover slipping out of place and retracting. One final area that needs improvement is the tactility of the door handles. There’s no satisfying tactile feedback to signal that the door handle has been pulled back far enough to have actuated the switch. It feels mushy and cheap, which is counter to the image the Jaecoo J7 projects. Perhaps this is a compromise that had to be made in order to fit the retractable exterior door handles at this price point.
For all my complaints, I have to say I quite enjoyed spending time in the Jaecoo J7. If anything the list of problems are something that can be addressed in a facelift. The 14.8” infotainment display is one of the largest and best looking ones at this price point. It comes with pretty reliable wireless Apply CarPlay/Android Auto, so that’s basically most of your needs covered.
It’s also one of the few headunits that can display Apply CarPlay in fullscreen portrait orientation, which at this size is just amazing to behold. I normally complain about hidden digital air cond controls, but I found myself intuitively finding the blower controls with a simple swipe up from the bottom. The 10.25” digital instrument cluster is pretty neat looking as well, but doesn’t particularly stand out.
There’s also a heads-up display that constantly projects your fuel range and speed, which are the two most vital bits of information one should have at all times. It’s also worth noting that there’s a massive storage space under the centre console with USB Type-C and Type-A ports for charging.
Other cabin features worth highlighting are the ‘chauffer controls’ on the front passenger seat, single rear air vent, floor-hinged accelerator pedal, and Sony audio system.
Having driven this and the Chery Tiggo 7 Pro – the ‘less premium’ sibling with very similar innards and equipment, I have to say I’m more willing to live with the Jaecoo J7. I don’t know why that is, but I have my theory. The theory is this – the Chery brand has a lot of baggage attached to it, and while the present and future looks great for this company, there’s no running away with the associations attached. The Jaecoo brand is new. You can attach as little or as much as you want to it. The look and feel is definitely made to signal something more upmarket than its Chery cousin and yet the pricing is aggressive.
If the Jaecoo J7 started at around RM160,000 it may have had a tougher time convincing so many customers (something like 7,000 units were sold in Malaysia just last year). Any other company would have done this to give the Tiggo 7 Pro some breathing room to compete. Here it looks like both brands are prepared to compete tooth and nail even with each other. Thus we have a product that feels good to be in, feels good to be seen in and yet doesn’t particularly hurt the wallet to own. It has its MANY flaws and it is shamelessly derivative, but at the end of the day value matters in this economy and Jaecoo has delivered a car that gives you 70% of the premium SUV experience at 30% the typical price. How do you complain about such an earnest effort? That being said, just keep in mind the comment we made earlier – if you’re already used to a car that drives exceptionally well, you may want to look elsewhere. If you’re just looking to get something pampering on a budget, it’s hard to find a better deal.
2024 Jaecoo J7 2WD Specifications
Engine: 4-cylinder 16V Turbo
Displacement: 1598cc
Transmission: 7-speed Dual Clutch Automatic
Max power: 197PS
Max torque: 290Nm
Top Speed: 180km/h
0-100km/h: 9.2 seconds
