Chery Tiggo 8 review

The Chery Tiggo 8 is yet another new Chinese SUV landing on UK shores. Which might sound like a slightly exasperated intro, perhaps unfairly so when you look at its relatively crisp design and inviting price tag. But we do pity the discombobulated crossover buyer trying to get their head around a market expanding at a voracious rate – with rather a lot of new brands to grasp in the process.

Not that it’s stopped Jaecoo and Omoda nicking market share from the European stalwarts and popping up on just about every street corner. If you’ve not noticed, then perhaps their designs so neatly mirror their multitudinous rivals, they’ve pulled off the ultimate imitation act…

Chery owns both of those brands and now launches under its own name, priced lower than Jaecoo (as a supposedly less premium proposition) while using much of the same tech and components. Its name is a deliberate misspelling of ‘cheery’ – this particular brand is about "finding your happy”, apparently – and its badge an unfortunate doppelganger for Infiniti’s. In some markets that might carry some kudos, but Nissan’s pursuit of BMW and Audi buyers didn’t follow the script on British soil.

But we digress. Chery’s pricing is likely to give it more of a fighting chance right from the off; it launches in the UK with the £24,995, five-seat Chery Tiggo 7, but the car you’re looking at here is the £28,545, seven-seat Tiggo 8. Same car, extra row of seats, in the baldest of terms.

Are there differences?

Their interiors are different, and the quirks don’t end there. The exterior styling varies between the pure petrol Tiggo 8 and its pricier plug-in hybrid option. Their divergence isn’t vast and comprises the usual facelift fodder of neater headlights, a spanglier grille and crisper surfacing – only the fresher looking car is actually the older, less appealing ICE version. Going for the perkier powertrain gets you plainer styling.

Seems very odd to us, but then we never really got our heads around the Jaecoo 7 offering two different interiors depending on engine choice. Chinese brands are entering our market and then iterating their ranges with a speed we’ve not really seen before; quickly getting cars into showrooms and finessing the details later appears to be of greater priority than a range that follows traditional protocol.

Tell me about the engines.

The base car drives its front wheels with a 145bhp, 1.6-litre turbo engine latched to a seven-speed dual-clutch auto. Performance is predictably modest, 0-62mph taking 9.8secs with its top speed 118mph. Precisely five grand more buys the CSH – ‘Chery Super Hybrid’ – which mates a modest e-motor and 18.4 kWh battery to a smaller 1.5-litre engine to send 201bhp through the front axle for an 8.5s jog to 62mph, yet a lower 112mph top speed.

Not that either of those are key stats – of more interest will be its ability to swallow seven people (adults can just about fit in the rearmost seats, but it’s predictably a squeeze) and its luggage space once they’re ensconced. With all three rows in place, luggage capacity is a slim 117 litres. More than the cheaper Vauxhall Frontera and Citroen C3 Aircross, whose third rows are also much stricter, but less than a number of its other rivals, the value Dacia Jogger and plusher Skoda Kodiaq among them. One to investigate at the dealer before you sign anything meaningful – a commodious boot and comfortable seating for seven is much more of an ‘either/or’ situation here than many of its rivals.

It sits in a curious spot in the market, all told, costing ten grand less than a Peugeot 5008 or Kodiaq – probably the two most charming, easily recommendable seven-seat SUVs on sale – yet ten grand more than the bargain-bucket (and still charming) Jogger, though beware the Tiggo’s poor value as a leasing proposition. The more established names and networks of its pricier rivals currently result in much lower monthlies. More of that over on the Buying tab of this review.

On paper, the Tiggo 8 looked like the more convincing of Chery’s launch cars. Seven seats and a rich equipment list – not to mention its surprisingly plush materials and general interior ambience – at ten grand less than perceived rivals. And it’s not a bad thing to drive, feeling brisk and refined in hybrid form, but there are niggles to iron out across much of its operation.

Compared to the Peugeot 5008 and Skoda Kodiaq, two thoroughly appealing cars in this sector, its slimmer 117-litre boot space (with all seven seats in action) plus much higher lease costs (as we write) make it a harder sell. Pure cash buyers can carve out a decent deal, of course, while business users might relish the hybrid’s low CO2. Shop around before assuming it’s a knockout deal on RRP alone, though…