Chery is no longer the brand we knew of from 20 years ago. The company is vastly different and has five major global R&D centres with a team of over 7,000 people actively conducting research and development.
Besides that, Chery now has 10 major factories, 1,500 overseas service outlets and boasts 11.3 million vehicles sold worlwide.
The company is obviously much different now and has the most advanced manufacturing techniques to attain excellent quality.
On the Malaysian front, Chery has launched the Omoda 5 and the Tiggo 8 Pro and we were taken away by the pricing! For this article we will focus on the Tiggo 8 Pro. This one aims to take on the big boys, such as the Proton X90 and Kia Sorento.
Unlike the Omoda 5, the Tiggo 8 Pro comes in a single luxury variant and we are not complaining as this single variant offers more than enough.
The Tiggo measures at 4722 mm in length, 1860 mm in width and 1705 mm in height and is capable of seating 7. It is built on the Modern T1X Platform. It comes with LED headlights, an illuminated logo that’s found on the front “galaxy” grille and the rear end features a full-width LED bar and T-shaped third brake lights. It is fitted with a set of 19-inch dual-tone alloys wrapped with 235/55 tyres.
The Tiggo 8 Pro is actually an improved version that in China is called Tiggo 8 Pro Max. To make things less complicated and not sound like an iPhone model, the “Max” was dropped for the Malaysian market.
Other exterior features include LED daytime running lights (DRL), powered tailgate, quad tailpipes and roof rails. Colour options available are only Dark Black and Khaki White.
The interior gives you the feel of driving a German continental car due to its premium aesthetics. Inside you will find 7-seats, a floating dual-screen setup that consists of an instrument display cluster and an infotainment display that measure 24.6 inches in total.
Just below the air conditioning vents, the climate control is controlled by touch-sensitive buttons. It also has a leather-wrapped flat bottom steering wheel and there are a total of eight Sony speakers which is a Burmester-style speaker grilles that you can find in a Mercedes.
In addition to that, it has memory function for the driver seat, heating and ventilation function for the front seats, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility, Mobile phone wireless charger, multi-colour ambient lighting, dual-zone automatic climate control, independent third-row aircon and electric panoramic sunroof with electric sunshade.
With all three rows of seats in place, the boot has a capacity of 193 litres, or 1,179 litres with 3rd row seats folded down and 2,101 litres with 2nd and 3rd row seats folded down.
It is propelled by a 2.0-liter, four-cylinder petrol turbo engine. 256hp and 390Nm are solely sent to the front wheels and is paired with a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission (DCT). The Fuel consumption (combined) is 7.4 L/100km.
Safety wise, the Tiggo come with the full ADAS suite that comes with a 540-degree camera. Yup, you read that right. Its the 360-degree camera system that consists of an underfloor camera. Standard ADAS features include:
- Front collision warning (FCW)
- Adaptive cruise control (ACC) & integrated cruise assist (ICA)
- Autonomous emergency braking (AEB)
- Lane departure warning (LDP)
- Lane departure keeping (LDK)
- Rear cross traffic alert (RCTA)
- Traffic sign recognition (TSR)
- Traffic jam assist (TJA)
- Tyre pressure monitoring system (TPMS)
- Blind spot detection
- Door open warning
How much for all this? The Tiggo 8 Pro is priced at RM159,800, on the road without insurance.
Additionally, Chery Malaysia presented its warranty plan, which covers the vehicle for seven years or 150,000 kilometres in addition to five years of free service (with alternate years of free labour). The engine has a 10-year or 1-million-kilometer warranty. However, this is only available to the first 3,000 customers. After that, it returns to seven years/150,000 km. However, add RM2,000 for an extended warranty plan if you really want the 10y/1m bundle.
As for local assembly, this will be done at a 200-acre manufacturing facility in Kulim, Kedah, in partnership with Inokom Corporation Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Sime Darby Motors Malaysia. More information on that later.
