GWM Cannon vs LDV Terron 9

What's the difference?

The latest version of the Cannon ute displays commendable improvement in key areas like drivetrain and chassis tuning, along with a benchmark 3500kg tow rating, heaps of standard equipment and a generous warranty for a list price well under $50K. For a tradie on a budget, it represents value that's hard to ignore.

There’s no doubt that the current crop of Chinese utes are better than previous versions. Similarly, there’s little doubt that private buyers are having a big say in which way the market is headed, particularly when it comes to alternatives to the Thai-built legacy players. And that’s precisely where the Terron 9 plays its best game. The value for money is hard to argue with, and the sheer size of the thing gives it an extra dimension if that’s what you think you need in a dual-cab. While we have no quarrel with the driveline of the Terron 9, it will be nice when somebody finally adds an on-bitumen four-wheel-drive mode to one of these in this price range. Until then, the Terron 9 can’t be criticised for this omission. In the meantime, the Terron 9 exhibits quite a bit of refinement in the way both the engine and transmission work together. Our biggest complaint is the way the driver-assistance systems have been calibrated. The driver-distraction warning is almost comical (for the first five minutes, anyway) in its zeal, and the lane-keeping assistance program is bordering on scary in the wrong circumstances. Again, LDV is not alone in this regard, but as a clean-sheet design, sketched up in a driver-assisted world, perhaps we were expecting a little more from this ute.

The upgraded Cannon brings refreshed exterior styling, with the front fascia featuring a new grille and bumper design, larger fog lights and more subtle use of chrome highlights.

At the rear there’s more prominent (and permanent) brand identification with bold ‘GWM’ lettering embossed on the tailgate panel, which is a welcome blast from our pick-up past.

The spacious interior design has also been enhanced with use of what GWM calls ‘premium materials’ including soft-touch surfaces on the dash and door panels along with subtle chrome accents.

There’s also a new steering wheel and the centre console has been redesigned with less buttons and dials (not always a good thing) topped by the new multimedia touchscreen.

While the Terron 9 remains a ladder-chassis design with the body plonked on top (just like traditional four-wheel drives and most other dual-cabs) there is one important departure in design terms. And it’s one that rules out a whole sub-class of this type of vehicle.

Because the body sides are one piece in the Terron, with no gap between the rear bulkhead and the tray, there’s no way to turn the thing into a cab-chassis with a drop-side tray or service body. Yes, you can add a canopy to the existing design (LDV is working on its accessory line-up for the Terron right now) but there’s no cab-chassis variant now or in the works.

That might seem a bit odd, but when you consider the vast majority of dual-cabs are, in fact, styleside utes, maybe the sales hit won’t be a huge one. That’s especially so when you consider many of the Chinese utes rely on private buyers, not fleet customers, for their sales volumes. And in any case, says LDV, the way the body is constructed allows for a little more rear seat legroom and a touch more cargo space length for the same overall length. Which the company believes is a trade-off worth sticking with.

There’s also been a clear brief for the Terron 9 to make a visual statement. While it’s dimensions put it somewhere between the mainstream dual-cabs and the full-sized American pick-ups we see, the styling definitely leans towards the latter. The grille is huge, the vertical tail-lights very Stateside and the whole thing looks imposing. I’ll personally draw the line at attractive, but it’s definitely imposing.

The most adventurous piece of interior design must be the electronic door handles which need just a simple press to open the doors. There’s a manual, cable-operated door opener hidden in each door pocket if things go wrong electrically at some stage.

With its 2230kg kerb weight and 3225kg GVM, the Cannon Ultra has a 995kg payload rating (that’s close enough to a ‘one-tonner’ by our measure) and the latest upgrades include an increase in braked tow rating from the previous 3000kg to the class-benchmark 3500kg.

However, with its 6200kg GCM (or how much it can legally carry and tow at the same time) our test vehicle would require a substantial payload reduction of more than half a tonne (525kg) to tow its maximum trailer weight (but it’s not alone there).

And that would leave 470kg of payload capacity, most of which could be used up by the weight of a hefty five-member working crew before you could think about loading any of their tools and other equipment.

Fact is, few (if any) owners would need to tow 3500kg, but it’s important to be aware of these numbers if you do plan to tow that heavy and want to stay on the right side of the law.

The square load tub is 1520mm long and wide and 540mm deep, but with 1146mm between the rear wheel-housings it won’t fit a standard Aussie pallet. However, it will accommodate Euro pallets, if hauling such payloads is important.

The tub’s internal surfaces are protected by a spray-in liner and there are load-anchorage points front and back, with the rears close to floor level (ideal for all loads) and the fronts near the tops of the sidewalls (not ideal for low loads). The tailgate is equipped with hydraulic dampers to assist opening/closing and the handy fold-out step allows easy entry to the load tub.

Cabin storage includes a bottle holder and bin in each front door, a small lower dash compartment on the driver’s right and a slender bin above the glove box on the passenger side.

The centre console has a wireless phone-charging pad, 12V socket and two USB ports up front, plus cup/small-bottle holders and a lidded box at the back with an internal air conditioning cooling vent and sliding upper storage tray.

The rear seat has adequate legroom even for tall people, given I’m 186cm and have about 60mm of knee clearance when seated behind the driver’s seat in my position.

Headroom is adequate though not as generous and the deep contour in the roof lining to allow for the sunroof can make tall rear passengers feel a bit closed-in.

Shoulder room can also be squeezy for three large Aussies, so like all dual cab utes short of a full-size US pick-up it’s okay for short trips but ideal for two on longer drives.

There’s a bin and bottle-holder in each rear door and pockets on both front seat backrests. The 60/40-split seat bases can also fold up and by stored vertically for more internal load space, or to access wheel-changing equipment.

A longer, wider cargo bed is probably one of the Terron 9’s best party tricks. Compared with the T60, the Terron is larger in every direction and extends that lead into the tub’s dimensions where it emerges with 1230mm between the wheel arches and a cargo bed length of 1600mm (90mm more than the T60 Pro).

That’s partly all possible by the extra wheelbase which, at 3300mm, is about as big as it gets in this class of ute, although the turning circle has grown to 13.1m compared with the T60’s tighter 12.7m.

A spray-in tub liner is standard as is the spring-assisted tailgate. Pony up for the ritzier, Evolve version, and you add cargo rails atop the tub sides and cargo-bed lighting.

Inside the tray, there are four decent tie-down hooks nice and low in the tub and plastic side toppers to prevent damage to the tub’s top rail. The tailgate is a clever design that is supported by springs and struts so that it drops in a controlled way and is very light to lift back up. The latch on the top corner of the tray is odd, but the tailgate can be opened via the key fob, too.

The biggest omission in the tray is the lack of any power socket.

Inside, the cabin is wide and features a pair of cup-holders down low in the centre console, as well as a USB-A, USB-C and a 12-volt socket placed somewhat awkwardly in the centre bin. The front arm-rest looks like it should incorporate a wireless phone charger, which it doesn’t. Yet. Watch this space, is the whisper. A reach and height adjustable steering column is also a nice addition at this price-point. And, thankfully, LDV has worked out that most people don’t want to go fishing through a menu to adjust the climate control. So the Terron 9 has actual buttons on the dashboard. Hallelujah.

Side steps are standard and help you in and out of the cabin, and there are grab-handles in the right places, too. Rear seat space is generous and even the cloth trim of the entry-level version is not the cheap-and-nasty sort, even if it’s far from sporty looking.

The indicator wand is on the `wrong’ side for Australia, partly because the gear selector is a wand on the other side of the steering column. Some users will spend the first few days hitting the gear selector in error. The starter is a push button, but placed in the conventional position of a standard ignition key. Nice touch.

The Terron 9 will be available initially in entry-level Origin specification and, following that in the next few weeks, a plusher Evolve variant with a mixed bag of additions, some of which extend its off-road appeal, and some of which don’t.

Kicking off with the $50,990 Origin (drive-away for ABN holders) or $53,674 drive-away for private buyers, the range then ramps up to the Evolve model at $55,990 for ABN holders and $58,937 drive-away for private buyers. But if you are an ABN holder and you get in quick, there’s $1000 discount on both grades as a launch deal.

The base vehicle is equipped with 18-inch alloy wheels with a highway-oriented tyre as opposed to the more off-roady All Terrains some competitors use. A tow-bar is standard kit as are LED headlights, a tailgate helper spring, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto phone connectivity, roof rails, twin 12.3-inch digital screens, automatic headlights, six-way powered font seats, rain-sensing wipers, front and rear parking sensors and a 360-degree camera system.

Clues that this is the entry-level car come in the form of the cloth upholstery and the four-speaker sound system, although the standard paddle shifters suggest otherwise.

Move up to the Evolve (when it arrives) and you’ll be adding 20-inch alloy wheels and tyres fitted with similar on-road oriented rubber to match. Sure, the 20s are blingy, but they won’t do anything for off-road ability. More relevant perhaps, is the addition of a front differential lock to join the rear locker standard on the base version.

On the luxe front, the Evolve adds eight-way adjustment for the powered front seats, heating and ventilation for those chairs as well as a massage function, heating for the rear seat, an eight-speaker stereo, ambient lighting, auto-folding exterior mirrors, and a trailer back-up assistance program.

Given the price-tag, the LDV puts up a strong value-for-money argument. Very few dual-cab utes at this price-point offer disc brakes on all four wheels, nor a standard tow-bar. And some of the ones that do supply only the hitch receiver, while LDV supplies the receiver, hitch and wiring loom.

The Cannon's engine capacity has increased 20 per cent by adopting the Alpha's 2.4-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel. It produces 135kW of power at 3600rpm and 480Nm of torque between 1500-2500rpm, which represents a 12.5 per cent power increase and 20 per cent more torque.

This is paired with GWM’s new homegrown nine-speed torque converter automatic (previously eight-speed) which has overdrive on the top three ratios and there are steering wheel paddle-shifters for sequential manual-shifting.

The 4x4 system is a ‘torque on demand’ design that transmits power to the rear axle under normal driving conditions to optimise fuel economy, but automatically sends power to the front axle if a loss of rear axle traction is detected.

It also offers a choice of selectable drive modes comprising 'Normal' (default), 'Sport' and 'Eco', plus 4H (4x4 High Range) and 4L (4x4 Low Range). The latter is only for the rough stuff, where the selectable electronic rear diff-lock could also come in handy.

While peak outputs of both the Terron 9 and its smaller stablemate T60 seem similar on paper, in actual mechanical terms, there are a few important differences.

While the T60 uses a 2.0-litre four-cylinder diesel with a pair of turbochargers, the Terron 9 is, on paper, a bit more simplified, but a lot newer in design terms. It’s a 2.5-litre unit, but reverts to a single turbocharger for a power peak of 163kW (three up on the T60, at slightly lower revs) and max torque of 520Nm (20 more). Fuel economy should be about line-ball with the T60 (more of that later).

Like the T60, the Terron 9 features an independent, coil-spring front end, but loses the T60 Plus’ coil-sprung rear axle for a leaf-sprung live axle.

The Terron 9 sticks with an eight-speed automatic transmission (although a different unit to the T60’s eight-speed unit) and also gets four-wheel drive with a low-ratio transfer case for proper off-roading. What’s missing (but nobody else at this price-point has it either) is Auto 4WD mode which allows the vehicle to be driven in four-wheel drive on bitumen surfaces. In the case of towing on a wet road, this is a huge boost to overall safety.

While the extra torque over the T60’s smaller engine seems welcome, it pays to remember that the larger Terron 9 is about 300kg heavier than its little brother. That said, the payload is a little higher at 1100kg for the Origin and 1005kg for the Evolve but with the vehicle’s full 3500kg on the tow-hitch, that payload falls to 600kg and 505kg respectively, thanks to the Terron’s 6500kg Gross Combination Mass. It’s far from alone in this regard.

GWM claims official combined consumption of 8.4L/100km and the dash display was showing 9.6 at the completion of our 321km test, which comprised the usual mix of suburban, city and highway driving, of which about one third of that distance was hauling its maximum payload. The engine auto start/stop function was switched off for the duration.

Our own figure of 9.7L/100km, crunched from actual fuel bowser and tripmeter readings, was line-ball with the Cannon’s onboard calculation, which proved its accuracy. It also validated our test vehicle’s real-world sub-10L/100km consumption, which is excellent for a two-tonne-plus ute and gets a big thumbs-up from us.

Therefore, based on our test figure, you could expect a real-world driving range of around 800km from its 78-litre diesel tank.

LDV’s official fuel consumption figure for the Terron 9 is 7.9 litres per 100km. That’s a number that you might – just might – see on a gentle highway run, but the 9.0 litres per 100km we recorded on our own test drive is probably closer to the day-to-day mark. That’s still pretty good, though and speaks of the tall gearing in the eight-speed automatic transmission.

Against the 80-litre standard fuel tank, that gives a useable range of close enough to 850km on the open road before you need to start watching the fuel gauge.

It’s also worth mentioning that the Terron 9 is Euro 5 complaint rather than meeting the tougher Euro 6 emissions targets. As such, it does not require the addition of AdBlue, representing another running cost saving.

Even though there’s no adjustment for base-cushion rake or lumber support on the driver’s seat, we didn’t suffer any discomfort during our test. There are also three steering wheel assist modes to choose from comprising 'Light', 'Comfort' (default) and 'Sport'.

The new 2.4-litre engine effectively fills the gap that existed with the previous 2.0-litre, which felt underdone given this vehicle's size and weight. The big 20 per cent increase in torque is a noticeable improvement, as it pulls strongly from low rpm with gearing that keeps it within its peak zone most of the time.

It’s also relatively smooth and quiet and the three drive modes optimise performance in each setting. The Sport mode provides a noticeable increase in response, which in combination with the same setting for the steering is the most engaging drive experience.

The refined nine-speed auto is a sweet-shifting transmission in either auto or manual mode.

We were also pleasantly surprised by a big improvement in ride and handling, as this latest version of the Cannon feels like it finally has the beefier spring rates and damper settings this ute has been crying out for.

It’s also an effortless highway cruiser, with the overdriven top gear ensuring the engine requires less than 1800rpm to maintain 110km/h. However, although wind and engine noise is pleasantly low at these speeds, we did notice tyre noise emanating from the rear tyres into the cabin.

To test its GVM rating, we maxed out the payload to 990kg. This compressed the rear leaf-springs about 60mm, leaving around 40mm of static bump-stop clearance which ensured no bottoming-out on our test route.

It felt stable and sure-footed and the new drivetrain made light work of our 13 per cent gradient, 2.0km-long set climb at 60km/h, displaying ample pulling power in fourth gear to easily haul this load to the summit.

Engine-braking on the way down, in a manually-selected second gear, was arguably the best we’ve experienced in a sub-3.0-litre turbo-diesel with almost a tonne on its back.

Our only gripe is the emergency lane-keeping assist function, which needs more refinement as it creates weird fluctuations in steering weight and aggressively tugs at the wheel when you get anywhere near a white line.

Fortunately, this can be disabled in the vehicle settings menu, but unfortunately must be switched off before each drive.

The first impression is that this is a very big vehicle. The passenger’s seat seems miles away and the bonnet is high, wide and mighty. That might not play too well off road where such a huge bonnet can hide the obstacles you’re about to fall off or drive over, but at least the forward facing camera system gives you a fighting chance. The other problem off-road is likely to be the sheer girth of the LDV where it might struggle a little for elbow room on tracks formed by smaller vehicles.

On the bitumen, the Terron 9 feels pretty relaxed with a gear for every occasion and an unstressed engine that is clearly tuned for mid-range oomph rather than top-end power. It’s smooth and relatively refined and, left to its own devices, the eight-speed automatic shifts up seamlessly.

The only complaint would be a degree of driveline shunt in the example we drove that could be both heard and felt, most notably in the transition from off-throttle to on-throttle, but also during the odd upshift. In 2025, this seems very odd indeed. We checked with LDV and they reckon this is a one-off glitch and possibly down to the car’s early build. Certainly, the second Terron 9 we sampled didn’t exhibit the same problem.

Ride quality is generally good and while the leaf-sprung rear axle can feel a little lively at times, it’s not a bad match for the front end, meaning that the car feels of a piece rather than two halves of a car fighting each other. While there is plenty of suspension movement, it also feels quite well controlled despite the obvious amount of unsprung mass. Cabin noise is commendably low, too. Thanks to tall gearing and that noise suppression, the Terron is a relaxed highway performer.

The steering is better than average for this type of vehicle with a good relationship between feel, weight and reaction speed. This is one ute than can be hustled along if it needs to be, and one on which the paddle-shifters are a meaningful inclusion (although they’re also a huge bonus when off-roading).

By far our biggest complaint is one that is far from exclusive to LDV. And that’s the (what we consider to be) poor calibration of some of the driver aids. The lane-keeping assistance is the main offender and, on a narrow road with a well-defined edge, the Terron 9 will intervene to prevent a wheel dropping onto the gravel. Unfortunately, at higher speeds, it does so with what feels like a stabbing action; violent enough to scare you the first time it happens. Could it frighten a timid or inexperienced driver into a crash? It’s a possibility we can’t ignore.

The driver-distraction warning is also, ironically, its own distraction. Take your eyes off the road for long enough to read the otherwise excellent dashboard display, and you’ll have the warning stepping in with a beeping admonishment as well as a visual warning that overrides the information you were trying to read in the first place. Again, LDV is hardly alone in this, but there’s definitely some recalibration required before the systems are as good as some of the (more expensive) competition’s equivalents.

Both versions of the Terron 9 will feature the same safety package, starting with the latest driver aids such as autonomous emergency braking (AEB), forward-collision warning, lane-keeping assistance, adaptive cruise control, traffic-sign recognition, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, and a door-exit warning to help prevent `dooring’ cyclists. But as we mentioned earlier, the inclusion of these assistance systems is not enough; they also need to be calibrated properly.

Meantime, the forward-collision warning and autonomous braking functions work in a speed range of 8km/h to 140km/h.

It’s also good to see standard tyre pressure monitoring which really should be included on every vehicle aimed as heavily towards towing duties as this one.

The Terron 9 in all its forms also sports seven airbags including a centre-front air bag to minimise head clashes in a side impact.

The Terron 9 has not been assessed by ANCAP for a crash-safety rating, but it’s expected that ANCAP will, indeed, study overseas data on the vehicle and make a judgment in due course.

Like all GWM Cannons, our test vehicle comes with a generous seven-year/unlimited km warranty, which includes five years of roadside assist. Apart from the first service at 12 months or 10,000km, scheduled servicing is every 12 months/15,000km, whichever occurs first.

GWM offers capped-pricing for the first five scheduled services (60 months or 70,000km), which totals $2530, or an average of $506 per service.

The Terron 9 is covered by LDV’s rather excellent seven-year/200,000km warranty. Service intervals are every 12 months or 15,000km with the exception of the very first service which is due at 10,000km to account for the running-in oil the engine is filled with from the factory. This sounds like an extra impost, but mechanical sympathists will love this attention to detail.

LDV is looking into capped-price servicing but there’s no announcement to be made yet, nor any hint of what the price structure of that might look like if it happens.