Chery Tiggo 4 review

Chinese budget brand introduces hybrid compact crossover in vein of MG ZS

The Chery Tiggo 4 is another compact Chinese crossover – but unlike so many of them, it can’t be plugged in.

It’s a hybrid, sitting firmly in the B-segment at 4.3 m long, built to take on cars like the Dacia Duster and MG ZS.

At less than £20,000, it's priced to give established car makers the heebie-jeebies too: the Ford Puma starts at £27,000.

Chery is in the Omoda-Jaecoo bunch of brands, and there’s chat from the company about whether one should best imagine those two at Bicester Village or at Daylesford, or Mayfair or another swish part of London. But Chery, they say, is pure suburbia: imagine it as a no-nonsense, own-brand white-loaf kind of car, and perhaps none the worse for that.

Chery’s thinking is that somebody trades in their five-grand supermini as a deposit and pays £235 monthly for one of these instead and, a couple of years down the line, rinse and repeat. The successes of other Chinese brands suggest it’s a convincing argument.

New Chery Tiggo 4 cars in stock

 Chery Tiggo 4 1.5 Hybrid Aspire 5dr DHT opens in a new tab
£19,995
 Chery Tiggo 4 1.5 Hybrid Summit 5dr DHT opens in a new tab
£21,995
View all 2 cars

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DESIGN & STYLING

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The Tiggo 4 arrives with one powertrain only, a 95bhp 1.5-litre petrol engine backed by an electric motor for a system total of 201bhp, sent through a continuously variable transmission to the front wheels.

There’s a 1.83kWh battery, which it uses to blend engine and motor to maximise economy, officially approaching 55mpg.

The suspension is by struts at the front and a torsion beam at the rear, with passive shock absorbers, so although there are drive modes (which we’ll come to in a moment), they don’t change the suspension settings.

It rides on 215/60 R17 tyres – Sailun Erange Performances on our test car.

INTERIOR

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Here’s one area in which Chery hopes to score significantly against the European establishment – and perceived interior quality is certainly very high, with soft-feel plastics abound and rather good economics too.

The Summit car I tested is the higher of two available specifications, and still only £21,995. There are no options other than paint, with all but white costing £500, so everything you see in pictures is what you get.

That includes proper buttons for windows and mirrors, an array of them on the centre console, including an approximation thereof for heating and ventilation, plus digital instruments and a touchscreen to take care of the rest – including turning off the poor ADAS, a short pre-flight check before you set off.

The electrically adjustable, heated seats are tall and the steering wheel is almost round.

There's lots of room in the back, plus a reasonably sized boot, at 430-1155 litres – although when you fold the rear seats, you don’t get a perfectly flat floor, and the 12V battery intrudes marginally into the volume too.

But with plentiful oddment storage, this a is straightforwardly spacious and well thought-out car.

There’s no automatic tailgate option on either trim level, which I have to say is great too: nothing’s as quick and easy as closing it yourself.

On paper, then, there’s rather a lot going for it.

ENGINES & PERFORMANCE

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Driving the Tiggo 4 is a bit less convincing than looking at it. In the lesser of two drive modes, Eco, you don’t have to have CVT-related engine-droning fears, because the inline four is so muted, the system keeps revs low and it wants to let the motor do as much work as possible.

It feels perkier and less treacly in Sport mode, but that releases the engine too, and under harder acceleration does make some wild (if smooth) revvy noises, reminiscent of those shabbier old CVT times. It gets a little overexcited, basically.

Chery says that if you give it everything, it will do 0-62mph in 8.9sec and go on to 93mph, which sounds about right for a car with 201bhp, 229lb ft of torque and a 1550kg kerb weight.

RIDE & HANDLING

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There's a mixed bag here as well. The generally settled ride is underlined by an occasional thump and firmness around town, yet this isn’t matched by tight body control. It’s not overtly loose, nor uncomfortable, just less composed than some of the competition.

The handling is unremarkably tidy, though, and traction is fine (at least on the dry roads of our test day).

The steering, though, is not good. It’s extremely sticky near the straight-ahead, a facet that doesn’t go away in Sport mode where it’s meant to be more responsive. It’s quite tiresome, regularly having to overcome these sticky spots when you just want to mildly adjust your line on a straightish road. Only once you’re a quarter-turn into its lock does it have less stiction, then it’s light and lifeless. 

MPG & RUNNING COSTS

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Depreciation and reliability are still uknowns at this point in the Tiggo 4’s life cycle. But there is a long warranty and, given that most buyers will purchase on finance over a set time, they will be inured from any disappointments there anyway. And it’s considerably cheaper than some of the alternatives.

The official fuel consumption figure is 53.2mpg, but I saw nearer 60mpg in mixed driving.

VERDICT

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I suppose potential buyers will look at the Tiggo 4’s interior and price and the 53.2mpg fuel consumption and decide that doesn’t matter very much if the car doesn’t drive as slickly as some of its pricier rivals.

It may not be a car for you, given that you’re reading Autocar, but I shouldn’t be surprised to start seeing a lot of Tiggo 4s soon, giving established car makers even more headaches.

Matt Prior

Matt Prior
Title: Editor-at-large

Matt is Autocar’s lead features writer and presenter, is the main face of Autocar’s YouTube channel, presents the My Week In Cars podcast and has written his weekly column, Tester’s Notes, since 2013.

Matt is an automotive engineer who has been writing and talking about cars since 1997. He joined Autocar in 2005 as deputy road test editor, prior to which he was road test editor and world rally editor for Channel 4’s automotive website, 4Car. 

Into all things engineering and automotive from any era, Matt is as comfortable regularly contributing to sibling titles Move Electric and Classic & Sports Car as he is writing for Autocar. He has a racing licence, and some malfunctioning classic cars and motorbikes.