Chery Reviews

Both the Toyota and Kia have good reputations for quality and durability, while the Chery is more of an unknown quantity in Australia. The important thing to remember is that the cars you’ve short-listed are all near-new vehicles, so they’ll have plenty of factory warranty left to run.

The best way to avoid clear coat peeling is to buy a car in a solid, rather than metallic, colour, which doesn’t generally have the same peeling problems. That said, modern paint technology is much better than ever before, so this is less of a problem than it once was. Protecting a car’s interior means parking it out of the sun in the hotter months. Although, again, the durability of interior plastics has come a long, long way in recent years.

If you’re going to keep the car for a few years and then trade it in on a new car, retained value is more important than any of your other concerns. And in that sense, the Toyota traditionally moves to the front of the pack.

Cars don’t like to sit around for long periods. When they do, they often develop problems in the process, with everything from running problems to flat-spotted tyres and mould growing inside them.

When you say the car doesn’t want to start, does that mean it turns over when you turn the key, or that nothing at all happens? If it’s the latter, the battery is probably flat or completely dead and will need to be recharged or replaced depending on its condition. If the engine turns but doesn’t fire, you might have a tank full of stale fuel that will need to be drained and replaced. Modern fuel goes stale pretty quickly and can also foul spark plugs, making the engine hard or even impossible to start.

A full service with fresh oil, spark plugs, fuel and filters might do the trick and is a good idea for any vehicle that has been sitting around for a while.

Chery claims that the Omoda 5 GT was only ever going to be a limited-run model which is why it’s been axed just about a year after it was originally launched. If you are still keen on the car, then buying a 2024 model is your only option, as production of the car stopped a few months ago.

To clear showrooms of remaining stock, Chery is offering a $3000 discount on the driveaway price of both the GT and GT AWD, so maybe that will sway your decision.