Say goodbye to these 2 cars after 15 years in South Africa

[SauRoNZA]

My friend traded in audi a3 for chery tiggo 4 and she hates it. Very weak aircon and fuel consumption has doubled. Keyless entry has a mind of its own and drains the battery sometimes too leading to jump start in the morning.

Key being kept too close to the car? A friend with Ford had a problem like that. First car with keyless so didn’t know any better.

It’s factually impossible that fuel consumption can “double every week” but yes the Chery’s are a little less economical.

Then again you pay less for them in the first place so total cost of ownership it doesn’t really matter.

The obsession with a 1L/100km variance is weird. It’s also exceptionally funny how people always quote German manufacturer numbers against real world Chinese ones…never like for like.

 

[SauRoNZA]

They just copied Tesla.

Oh for sure because Tesla is also a modern manufacturer with modern processes, where everyone else is pretty much a legacy brand.

 

[wingnut771]

Key being kept too close to the car? A friend with Ford had a problem like that. First car with keyless so didn’t know any better.

It’s factually impossible that fuel consumption can “double every week” but yes the Chery’s are a little less economical.

Then again you pay less for them in the first place so total cost of ownership it doesn’t really matter.

The obsession with a 1L/100km variance is weird. It’s also exceptionally funny how people always quote German manufacturer numbers against real world Chinese ones…never like for like.

Went from 6l/100 to 10l/100. Aircon sucks and needs to stay on low to even work and not fog up the windscreen, but hot days even low isnt enough. Chery has checked it out and all is "fine".

 

[SauRoNZA]

Went from 6l/100 to 10l/100. Aircon sucks and needs to stay on low to even work and not fog up the windscreen, but hot days even low isnt enough. Chery has checked it out and all is "fine".

In fairness I haven’t driven a single Chery or one of their sub-brands so have no personal skin in the game there.

Is that like old school aircon or climate control?

 

[wingnut771]

In fairness I haven’t driven a single Chery or one of their sub-brands so have no personal skin in the game there.

Is that like old school aircon or climate control?

Climate control.

 

[Speedster]

They just copied Tesla.

Nope. The higher end Chinese electrics are streets ahead of Tesla.

 

[Speedster]

My friend traded in audi a3 for chery tiggo 4 and she hates it. Very weak aircon and fuel consumption has doubled. Keyless entry has a mind of its own and drains the battery sometimes too leading to jump start in the morning.

They're selling 2500 of them a month. If the problems were widespread then I'm sure we'd hear about them a lot more. But also, she's comparing an entry level R280k car to a R800k car.

Edit: I went from a Volvo V40 to Jolion. I was expecting a "downgrade" but the only two factors that feel that way are the audio quality and it's more sluggish (coming from 2l turbo). For the rest it's at least on par, but mostly an improvement.

 

[vigras rojara]

The regular Polo seems like an odd way to spend one's money. Putting an Audi badge on it and flogging it for even more, doesn't sound like a winning strategy.

It's not surprising that the Chinese brands are cleaning up.

 

[neoprema]

Instead of just making up your own facts you maybe want to go watch one of these tear down videos done by companies the likes of Caresoft.

The entire industry is now trying to catch up to Chinese manufacturing processes.

I’ve driven the following:
Haval H6
GWM TANK
BYD Dolphin
BYD Seal

Don’t get me wrong, Chinese cars have come a LONG way. But they will never be German engineering its in their dna. It’s what makes you get up in the morning with a smile on your face knowing you’ll get to be in your Audi again.

when I come back home from work trips having driven hired cars I give my Audi a big hug

 

[SauRoNZA]

I’ve driven the following:
Haval H6
GWM TANK
BYD Dolphin
BYD Seal

Don’t get me wrong, Chinese cars have come a LONG way. But they will never be German engineering its in their dna. It’s what makes you get up in the morning with a smile on your face knowing you’ll get to be in your Audi again.

when I come back home from work trips having driven hired cars I give my Audi a big hug

Unless you are driving an RS6 or something similar and ignoring the Dolphin in there I simply can’t agree.

It’s very much a placebo and I say this as a Audi/VW fan of old.

A couple of years ago if you asked me which one I would choose if I could have either one for free (same class etc) I would also have always said German. Now even that question has me leaning towards Chinese, but yes it’s certainly very car dependent.

BYD Seal especially would kill off most Germans, especially when you consider it’s real competition here is the Audi e-Tron.

Which is especially funny with these comparisons of Chinese vs German because more often than not they aren’t even compared to direct rivals just generally across brand.

And one model is not another. I also wouldn’t want the normal Haval H6 for instance.

But your own car is always best car. I feel like that with bikes especially, doesn’t matter what I ride even costing 3 times more than mine I always come back to mine and it’s just better.

 

[Jean Claude Vaaldamme]

Everyone always thinks what they have are the best.
At the end we can only go on facts.
I have never seen a car reviewer claiming Chinese cars quality is on par with German cars.
You will always hear "Value for money"

 

[wingnut771]

Unless you are driving an RS6 or something similar and ignoring the Dolphin in there I simply can’t agree.

It’s very much a placebo and I say this as a Audi/VW fan of old.

A couple of years ago if you asked me which one I would choose if I could have either one for free (same class etc) I would also have always said German. Now even that question has me leaning towards Chinese, but yes it’s certainly very car dependent.

BYD Seal especially would kill off most Germans, especially when you consider it’s real competition here is the Audi e-Tron.

Which is especially funny with these comparisons of Chinese vs German because more often than not they aren’t even compared to direct rivals just generally across brand.

And one model is not another. I also wouldn’t want the normal Haval H6 for instance.

But your own car is always best car. I feel like that with bikes especially, doesn’t matter what I ride even costing 3 times more than mine I always come back to mine and it’s just better.

I've owned VW's all my life from polo 1.2 to g7 gti. Then I went audi and instantly regretted not doing it sooner. They just ride better and have none of that tracking undulations in the road surface issues all the VWs had.

 

[SauRoNZA]

I've owned VW's all my life from polo 1.2 to g7 gti. Then I went audi and instantly regretted not doing it sooner. They just ride better and have none of that tracking undulations in the road surface issues all the VWs had.

Yes they are all boring…that’s why.

Quattro steals all the glory.

I’ve had way more fun in a FWD pumped up Scirocco than an RS4.

 

[SauRoNZA]

In fact Audi as a brand overall has become rather boring in the last 10 years.

Very rarely do I still see one and yearn to take it for a spin it’s just all very boring and same-y now.

And I already know they all drive way too predictably for my liking.

Bizarrely the fun Audi’s are the long fat sedans, because they seem to have a bit of a loose ass either because of sheer weight or maybe more rear-biased Quattro distribution.

 

[wingnut771]

In fact Audi as a brand overall has become rather boring in the last 10 years.

Very rarely do I still see one and yearn to take it for a spin it’s just all very boring and same-y now.

And I already know they all drive way too predictably for my liking.

Bizarrely the fun Audi’s are the long fat sedans, because they seem to have a bit of a loose ass either because of sheer weight or maybe more rear-biased Quattro distribution.

Agree. Mine has real buttons and silver rings.

 

[neoprema]

Unless you are driving an RS6 or something similar and ignoring the Dolphin in there I simply can’t agree.

It’s very much a placebo and I say this as a Audi/VW fan of old.

A couple of years ago if you asked me which one I would choose if I could have either one for free (same class etc) I would also have always said German. Now even that question has me leaning towards Chinese, but yes it’s certainly very car dependent.

BYD Seal especially would kill off most Germans, especially when you consider it’s real competition here is the Audi e-Tron.

Which is especially funny with these comparisons of Chinese vs German because more often than not they aren’t even compared to direct rivals just generally across brand.

And one model is not another. I also wouldn’t want the normal Haval H6 for instance.

But your own car is always best car. I feel like that with bikes especially, doesn’t matter what I ride even costing 3 times more than mine I always come back to mine and it’s just better.

RSQ3 and SQ5.

I know what you mean, but refinement wise too and not just Germans, the usability of buttons and features on a Mazda outplays a lot of the Chinese ones. I drove an Omoda in Cape Town as well, it forever disconnected from my phone and navigating menus was slow and cumbersome. the rest of the car was not bad though i mean it did everything one expects a car to do.

So yes it does usually come down also to what you want. if you gonna compare the BYD Seal to the e-Tron you're getting very similar performance at much much less cost so there is something to be said. However, i still think the refinement, brand cachet and usability of the e-Tron will trump the Seal.

The only reason id currently consider a BYD or similar is if i just want a car for its strict investment for i want to go to work and back, and the odd long drive and i want something functional and most of all least price impact. Then yeah i would probably look at Chinese.

But i've also wanted to look forward to getting into my car, which is also why i've had some pretty one-sided investments in my life in cars that never came back lol. You can throw a LOT of money away...

 

[Speedster]

RSQ3 and SQ5.

I know what you mean, but refinement wise too and not just Germans, the usability of buttons and features on a Mazda outplays a lot of the Chinese ones. I drove an Omoda in Cape Town as well, it forever disconnected from my phone and navigating menus was slow and cumbersome. the rest of the car was not bad though i mean it did everything one expects a car to do.

So yes it does usually come down also to what you want. if you gonna compare the BYD Seal to the e-Tron you're getting very similar performance at much much less cost so there is something to be said. However, i still think the refinement, brand cachet and usability of the e-Tron will trump the Seal.

The only reason id currently consider a BYD or similar is if i just want a car for its strict investment for i want to go to work and back, and the odd long drive and i want something functional and most of all least price impact. Then yeah i would probably look at Chinese.

But i've also wanted to look forward to getting into my car, which is also why i've had some pretty one-sided investments in my life in cars that never came back lol. You can throw a LOT of money away...

For interest sake, which part of the country do you stay in?

 

[neoprema]

For interest sake, which part of the country do you stay in?

JHB.

 

[SauRoNZA]

RSQ3 and SQ5.

That somewhat explains your personal point of view and I would call it warranted since we don’t have Chinese competitors in that segment on the local market just yet.

The equation changes a lot when we are looking at “normal” Q3’s and Q5’s.

I know what you mean, but refinement wise too and not just Germans, the usability of buttons and features on a Mazda outplays a lot of the Chinese ones. I drove an Omoda in Cape Town as well, it forever disconnected from my phone and navigating menus was slow and cumbersome. the rest of the car was not bad though i mean it did everything one expects a car to do.

This was a major problem 3-5 years ago with everything being on the screen and my own car suffers from it too.

It’s however addressed in most of the new cars now either with hardware buttons or a static row at the bottom of the screens which is as good as the same thing without swopping back and forth.

What I’d still love to see in all modern cars is just some basic smart logic features. Like if it’s 40 outside automatically show me the ventilated seat controls, not the default heater etc, stuff like this would go a long way to not needing the buttons to start with by just being more driver aware.

Similarly it’s not hard to work out if the car is parked outside and it’s cold that it would need anti-fogging so just do it automatically or offer it up immediately then no buttons required.

So yes it does usually come down also to what you want. if you gonna compare the BYD Seal to the e-Tron you're getting very similar performance at much much less cost so there is something to be said. However, i still think the refinement, brand cachet and usability of the e-Tron will trump the Seal.

The only reason id currently consider a BYD or similar is if i just want a car for its strict investment for i want to go to work and back, and the odd long drive and i want something functional and most of all least price impact. Then yeah i would probably look at Chinese.

But i've also wanted to look forward to getting into my car, which is also why i've had some pretty one-sided investments in my life in cars that never came back lol. You can throw a LOT of money away...

See I’m in the weird position now that I’m simply over petrol cars…or more specifically gearboxes in ICE cars.

It is such a terrible broken system to be sloshing through gears with “artificial” acceleration when you’ve experienced better and know what a 1:1 throttle to tyre system feels like both in smoothness and responsiveness.

And when you are only looking at electric and leaving the ICE stuff out of the equation the Chinese seem to be far more forward thinking and ahead of the game where the Germans are only now starting to purpose built EV’s properly instead of forcing batteries into conventional cars.

 

[neoprema]

That somewhat explains your personal point of view and I would call it warranted since we don’t have Chinese competitors in that segment on the local market just yet.

The equation changes a lot when we are looking at “normal” Q3’s and Q5’s.



This was a major problem 3-5 years ago with everything being on the screen and my own car suffers from it too.

It’s however addressed in most of the new cars now either with hardware buttons or a static row at the bottom of the screens which is as good as the same thing without swopping back and forth.

What I’d still love to see in all modern cars is just some basic smart logic features. Like if it’s 40 outside automatically show me the ventilated seat controls, not the default heater etc, stuff like this would go a long way to not needing the buttons to start with by just being more driver aware.

Similarly it’s not hard to work out if the car is parked outside and it’s cold that it would need anti-fogging so just do it automatically or offer it up immediately then no buttons required.



See I’m in the weird position now that I’m simply over petrol cars…or more specifically gearboxes in ICE cars.

It is such a terrible broken system to be sloshing through gears with “artificial” acceleration when you’ve experienced better and know what a 1:1 throttle to tyre system feels like both in smoothness and responsiveness.

And when you are only looking at electric and leaving the ICE stuff out of the equation the Chinese seem to be far more forward thinking and ahead of the game where the Germans are only now starting to purpose built EV’s properly instead of forcing batteries into conventional cars.

We need to continue thus discussion over coffee there's a lot to unpack! lol

But yeah I agree - the part with the default setting adapting to the car's environment should not be hard to to.
Are you driving an electric now?

So in France i've had a Citroen electric, Ford Mach-E and a Link & Co Hybrid. I mean I REALLY liked the instant acceleration of the Mach-E - to be honest it was actually well built too. No creaks, no rattles etc. I just didn't do well because i planned a longish trip for some sightseeing and landed up choosing the only 2 Total charging stations that had broken computers on their chargers and wouldn't charge. I literally rolled into a station later on with maybe 3% power. It had shutdown everything to compensate lol. I honestly thought i was gonna try AVIS roadside...

With regards to the Chinese and EV's yes I agree they've come a LONG way. I mean Tesla its definitely not viewed as "space-age" stuff anymore. In fact i've driven a Tesla in the US too, its very nice for what it is but i would definitely take a BYD over it in that class...