We have seen several Chinese brands come and go in Australia without making much of an impact. But the latest contender, Haval, might not be quite like the others.
The company has just launched in Australia with a three-SUV range priced and specced more closely in line with competition from Japan and Korea, and inspired in part by rivals out of Europe.
Right now, the H8 is a mixed bag. It has a fairly well-designed cabin, an outstandingly spacious rear seat and commodious cargo capacity, and generally decent ride. Its fuel use, handling and price, however, let it down.
At close to $50K on the road, it exceeds a number of rivals that offer seven seats, and despite its claims, some nice leather and chrome exterior highlights do not make a luxury car. Is the H8 a bad car? No it isn’t, though in some areas it feels quite unpolished.
But to buy a car at this price, from an unknown brand with unproven resale, without a suitable array of luxuries to compensate, would be a bold call. That said, we wish Haval all the luck in the world, and will be watching eagerly what it does over the next few years.
Or watch here:
http://www.caradvice.com.au/videos/2016-haval-h8-suv-review/
This calls to mind the post-launch,internal recall/delay of the H8 by Great Wall itself, for reasons like, “steering feel, too light”; and “brake pedal travel to long”, and a few others. But here, two years later, we find the reviewer’s interesting observation that the steering “is heavy”, and the brake feel “is wooden” . I’m not sure what the wooden means but am guessing he found it a bit hard.
Did Great Wall over compensate?
In any event, I am very impressed with the interior quality, fit, finish, and very ample con-venience features.
A lot of “feelings” are quite personal.
And normally drivers will get used to certain “features” of a totally new car.
I like H8 very much, would like to get one in future.
Haval is doing great in China, the biggest car market in the world.
GWM sold over 1 million cars in China in 2016, mainly Haval SUV’s, including this H8.