Jaecoo 7 SHS - long-term review

The Jaecoos are Jaecolonising Britain!

In September, the 7 became the UK’s fourth best-selling car: not fourth best-selling Chinese car, not fourth best-selling smallish SUV, but fourth best-selling full stop, outgunning long-term mainstays like the Corsa and Golf.

That is, I’m pretty sure, unprecedented territory for such a young company. Buoyed by some 6,000 sales of the 7, in September Jaecoo/Omoda snaffled 3.5 per cent of the UK’s market share. That’s more than Renault, only slightly less than Vauxhall or Peugeot.

So, tl;dr, everyone’s buying Jaecoo 7s. And as the Top Gear Garage 7 returns from whence it came after six months in our care, here’s the question we’re here to answer: should you consider joining the burgeoning number of buyers welcoming a gurgling new Jaecoo 7 into their lives?

To which my answer would be: not yet. There’s plenty to like about the 7, but also a bunch of issues to be ironed out. I’d hold fire until they’re dealt with. Or, if I couldn’t hold fire, I’d buy something else instead.

The good stuff: the 7’s plug-in hybrid powertrain. It’s an impressively efficient set-up, running as an EV at every opportunity, and harvesting masses of energy back through regenerative braking.

In a rare treat, the 56-mile quoted electric range isn’t a distant pipe dream, but actually achievable with a restrained right foot. I rarely topped up from the mains, but frequently saw economy well in excess of 50mpg.

Also good: legroom (plenty); material quality (high); the attention it receives (positive). This is an SUV that attracts plenty of comments, generally from folk assuming it’s more expensive than it is.

Less good: the various electronic glitches. A recent software and hardware update (available to all 7 owners) fixed the patchy DAB reception and alarm-triggering roof blind, but also changed a bunch of the HVAC labels into German for some reason. Call it software bug Whac-a-mole.

What else? The driver monitoring stuff is maddening – I know I took my eyes off the road! I was trying to figure how to demist the windscreen, a function you’ve hidden, along with every other, within the touchscreen rather than on a physical button! – but in fairness that isn’t unique to the Jaecoo.

Other annoyances are very much unique to the Jaecoo. If you park facing down a steep slope, the rear lights will remain on, even when you’ve locked the car. It is unclear why. If you’re facing up the slope, no lights. I abjectly failed to get the ‘Hey Jaecoo’ voice assistant to do any assisting. The column-mounted gearshifter will sometimes refuse to give you drive or reverse for a nervous second or so. Occasionally the automatic headlights get themselves into a tizz and start furiously strobing on dark country lanes.

Over time, I’m sure many of these glitches will be resolved through software updates. But the bigger issue – one that can’t be fixed by software updates, and the reason I can’t yet recommend you buy a 7 – is the ropey ride quality.

While in many regards the Jaecoo does a decent impression of a more expensive car, the dodgy damping undoes all that good work. Even modest potholes send a horrible clang through the body, giving the 7 a lurchy, wooden-legged attitude on anything but fresh tarmac. It’d be a deal-breaker for me.

Future Jaecoos may well improve in this regard. Decent ride quality is not the sole preserve of European or Japanese carmakers. But until Jaecoo cracks the issues, I’d steer clear of the 7. Unless you’ve bought one already, which statistically you probably have.