GWM Problems

It sounds like the fact that Haval’s warranty on this car of seven years/150,000km as a commercial vehicle (as opposed to unlimited kilometres for a privately operated vehicle) was not fully explained to you when you bought the car. Either that or you didn’t advise the dealer of your intentions for use of it.

However, I wouldn’t be too worried about the car falling to bits at the 150,000km mark. Modern cars (even cheaper ones) are pretty robust things these days, and provided they’re serviced properly, I don’t think 250,000km is too much to ask. That said, your car is a hybrid, so the life of the EV battery is probably the biggest question mark, and not something we can speculate on with any accuracy as the Havals using this tech aren’t old enough to have started failing yet.

The best bet is to be fastidious with your servicing and keep a close eye on the car’s habits and performance including its fuel economy. Because you’re driving the car a lot, you should be pretty well tuned in to the normal noises it makes and the way it feels to drive. Any change in this is when you need to start looking deeper.

GWM lists a canopy for the Ultra version of its Cannon Ute. And while it also lists a bullbar for the Cannon Ute, it doesn’t specifically mention whether it’s suitable for the Ultra. There may be some body or trim differences that make it unsuitable for the Ultra, so a check with your GWM dealer would be the next step.

The aftermarket also has lots of suppliers who offer both canopies and bull-bars for a huge range of makes and models, so there’s almost certainly something available there, too.

This occurs more often than you think and it’s often caused by overtightening of the sump plug when the old oil has been drained out and the new stuff is ready to go in. Generally speaking, the sump plug will be screwing into either a thin metal oil pan or a rather soft alloy sump. Either way, too much torque on the spanner that tightens it can easily strip the treads and leave you stranded. This is far from just a Haval problem – many makes and models have suffered the same fate.

The fix is usually to get the vehicle to a workshop where the mechanic can either drill out the messed up threads and cut a new thread to take an oversized sump plug. Done carefully, this can often be achieved without removing the sump.

This message will sometimes be seen in the Tank 300 when the battery charge drops below 12.5 volts. This can happen for a range of reasons, which can include that the key fob is too close to the car when it’s not being used (believe it or not). So don’t leave the key anywhere near the car when you’re not driving and see if that helps.

Other causes are accessories like dashcams that are either wired incorrectly or are not playing nice with the Tank’s body computer. You could try to disconnect the car’s battery overnight which may reset the computer to factory settings, but this seems like a pretty common fault with the Tank 300.

Being such a new car, the problem should not be the battery itself, but it would still be worth having it checked as well as the charging system to make sure there’s no problem there.

There are a couple of issues here. The first is that your mechanic may not have the correct scanning tool to be able to interrogate the car’s on-board computer to check for fault codes. And without the correct one, you won’t get far down that track. However, it’s worth following that route as it’s the best, most efficient way to find out what’s really going on inside the car.

Ironically, the same scanning tool required will probably also be able to turn the transmission warning light off. But turning the light off is not the solution; you need to know what triggered the warning in the first place and attend to that. Otherwise the light will keep cropping up, regardless of how often you turn it off.

Continuing to drive with a warning light illuminated risks doing more damage to the vehicle in the long run. Something is not right in your car’s driveline and the car knows it. But you’ll need the right mechanic with the right tools to be able to know what the fault is and how to fix it.

Yes it is. All engines use a small amount of oil, but recently, car makers have started using low-tension piston rings to reduce internal friction and save fuel. In turn, that means some modern engines consume a bit more oil than some older engine designs. That has led some car owners, more used to seeing very small levels of oil consumption, to become concerned when their new car consumes more oil than their old one. But this is pretty normal and the fuel saving is deemed worth the trade off.

Your level of oil consumption is absolutely normal and is no cause for concern. As with any car, however, it pays to keep an eye on the dipstick between services, as modern, low-friction engines and ever-longer service intervals mean some have ben caught out with an empty sump before the next service is due. Checking the oil every month is a good idea; checking it every week is an even better one. What you’re looking for is a change to the usual oil consumption rate, as well as making sure the oil is between the low and full marks on the dipstick.

I’ll presume you mean the indicator stalk which uses a soft touch to indicate a lane change, and a firmer push to keep the indicators on until a turn has been made. There’s also some confusion when trying to cancel the indicators manually, and inadvertently indicating the wrong way. Plenty of people have complained about this, and some owners don’t seem to ever get used to it. That said, drivers of other models rarely find this setup to be a problem.

I checked with GWM who told me that there were no plans to make any changes to the indicator system on the current model Tank 300. The vehicle passes all safety standards for Australia and there’s no problem with the system that would require a safety recall or any other intervention. However, this feedback has reached GWM and – though nobody at GWM has said so – I wouldn’t be surprised if the next incarnation of the Tank 300 has a different indicator stalk system.

A weird, random grinding noise at low speeds when taking off can sometimes be a result of the anti-lock brakes. It can be a surprise initially, but it doesn’t usually last more than a second or so and is caused by the braking system more or less calibrating itself for the journey ahead. It can also occur in reverse and is usually nothing to worry about.

But you should also probably look further than the braking system. Any grinding or rattling noise can be something as simple as a heat-shield vibrating, or as serious as a major flaw in the transmission or suspension. Either way, it needs to be diagnosed and fixed.

Don’t take no as an answer from the dealership, and don’t be afraid to tackle GWM’s Australian customer service division if you’re not getting anywhere. If there is a problem, then it’s very possibly a warranty issue and is GWM’s problem to fix.

The short answer is very good. It never fails to amaze first-timers just how capable modern 4X4s really are. With decent tyres, and a transfer-case with low-ratio gears, the GWM ute is likely to have more off-road capability than most owners will have brave pills.

Of course there are limitations, but for the average weekend away camping in the bush, the GWM will absolutely make it there and back. The good news is that you don’t even have to modify a vehicle like the GWM to be capable off road. Even in its stock standard form, it will amaze you where it will go. That said, throw some proper tyres on it, and it’ll be even more capable.

Of course, the counter-point here is that even the best off-road vehicle will run into trouble if it’s being driven by somebody who has no idea what they’re doing. So an off-roading course is a good idea, as is joining a club that takes newbies out to teach them the ropes in the field.

Any time you have a burning smell in a car, you have a potential fire. If something is hot enough that you can smell it, it’s possibly hot enough to burst into flames, especially if it contacts a fuel or oil leak somewhere on the car.

The fact that the smell occurs when going uphill suggests that it’s something in the driveline (engine or transmission) that’s getting hot because it’s working hard. It could also be a cable or hose that’s incorrectly routed too close to something that’s getting hot (like the exhaust) and causing the smell. In any case, the answer to your question is no, it’s not normal and it needs investigating.

Sometimes, a new exhaust system will create the odd strange smell as it heats up the first couple of times this shouldn’t be happening after 9000km. You need to take the car back to where you bought it from and have the dealership fix this before a real fire takes hold, or something important melts and stops working.