Jaecoo 5 review

£24,555 is the asking price for the Jaecoo 5 Pure. That one comes with halogen headlights (and LED daytime running lights), a six-speaker audio system, manually adjustable seats, the 8.8in driver’s display and 13.2in touchscreen, wireless smartphone mirroring, front and rear parking sensors and all the active safety aids you can shake a stick at. 18in alloy wheels are standard.

But if you’re dead set on a 5, it’s the Luxury spec that you really want. That’s £28,050 and gets LED headlights, the panoramic roof, dual-zone climate control, heated and vented, electronically adjustable front seats, heated steering wheel, the fancier eight-speaker SONY hi-fi, wireless phone charging, ambient lighting (if you can get it to work) and roof rails that’ll take up to 75kg on a roof rack.

That's a lot of space and a fair amount of stuff for the money, but as we've argued already, not a lot of car. So if you've made it this far into the review let's assume you've made your own mind up.

Quick note on fuel economy: the 35mpg we encountered is nothing to write home about in this sector, although the 1.5 hybrid version promises a vastly better return. We'll reserve judgement on that one until we've tested it.

Not hanging around for then? That one'll cost you £26,270, or £29,765 for the Luxury trim.

You can have one of five colours, or a pair of two-tone options. Only white is free. A warranty of seven years or 100,000-miles gives peace of mind, but isn’t unique to Jaecoo.

Who pays cash these days? Talk finance to me.

Go for the Luxury trim and you can bag yourself a Jaecoo 5 for £330 a month, assuming a deposit of £2,800 and repayments spread over four years at 1.9 per cent APR.

You can play around with your own numbers in Jaecoo's finance calculator, or shop away from the manufacturer. Always wise to check for a deal... and alternative cars. There's not much in it between this and a Kona on a PCP.