Geely EX2 review

There are four driving modes in the Geely EX2: Comfort, Sport, Eco and Snow. We did not test it in snow, because it was July. But we can confidently predict you’re not missing much, because none of the modes have any measurable effect whatsoever on the driving experience beyond changing the colours in the wee driver display ahead.

Now there’s nothing inherently wrong with a slow, easy to drive small car. They’re what most of us took our first tentative motoring steps in. It’s okay not to be fun but at least be confidence inspiring. The EX2 has insipid, twirly steering which feels like it’s off a gaming rig, not connected to actual tyres, and the regen to brake handover is soggy.

With tall rubber and easy-going suspension it doesn’t grumble over Britain’s terrible roads as much as a Renault 5, but even at modest roundabout speeds the claims of rear-wheel drive handling balance collapse into comedy understeer. Gently does it.
That’s okay. I’m not looking for a hot hatch. I just want a simple small car.

While the EX2 isn’t memorable to drive, it certainly likes to interfere with your driving. The ADAS (so-called Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) is among the worst we’ve tested. In a couple of hours the Geely grabbed the brakes for phantom emergency stops twice, insisted upon heavy-handed lane correction when simply steering around a pothole, and blurted out a rear-cross traffic alert when there was nothing behind except the shadow of a tree rustling in the breeze.

At a junction, the driver info screen trilled a ‘pay attention’ warning because ‘the vehicle in front has driven on’. Reader, it had not. The two-tonne Transit van was still very much there, millimetrically edging forward to see if it was clear to pull out. Meanwhile the EX2 is huffily insisting to sniff its bottom like a randy puppy.

Can’t you just turn all this stuff off?

You can, but due to EU legislation it’s back on every time you start the car for a new drive.

To turn it off for just one moment of peace, you need to tap the touchscreen’s main car menu. Then the driver assistance sub menu. Then the ‘Intelligent Reminders’ sub-sub menu. And then individually toggle off each misbehaving system. It’s infuriating – and in a Renault 5, the better-calibrated ADAS is disabled with a single button.

Geely says it’s a new-to-Europe company learning fast and there’ll (inevitably) be over-the-air software updates to fix all this. It’s planning a ‘turn all the ADAS off’ shortcut on the home screen. But if you’d already shifted almost half a million of these in a market as tech-obsessed as China, shouldn’t it be finished by now?

Any good points about the drive beyond the comfy ride?

It’s impressively quiet – no motor whine, no suspension knocking and very little wind noise. It’s so peaceful you’ll be able to hear the growth of your own nose hair outpacing the EX2 from nought to sixty.