GWM Problems

The Haval product has only been on sale in Australia since 2015, so it’s a bit hard to gauge its long-term reliability prospects. Even more so when it’s a model like the Jolion which hasn’t been on local roads for anything like seven years (it was launched here in 2021).

Based on the experiences of CarsGuide readers, the Jolion has been responsible for some electronic woes and the odd build-quality issue. These, however, could be isolated problems rather than a general assessment of the model. At least with a 2024 model, you’ll have at least six years of warranty, so you could use that time to assess the car’s reliability and quality for yourself before making a decision to hold on to it beyond the warranty period.

The best advice here is to disconnect the battery and contact the dealership. Any time there’s odd electrical behaviour combined with a burning smell, there’s a decent chance you have an electrical short-circuit on your hands. And that can easily lead to a fire that could destroy the car and anything near it.

By disconnecting the battery, you’re removing the power source that is making something hot enough to produce the burning smell. The constant beeping, meanwhile could be a symptom of the same thing as the shorted or damaged wiring allows the warning beeper to continue blaring away even though the ignition is turned off.

The GWM Tank 300 and 500 models are built by GWM in China.

The Ora is produced by Great Wall Motor, or GWM, a Chinese automaker based in Hebei, China.

From what I can gather, this is a standard feature of the Tank 500. The beep is to let you know the car has been locked, even if you’re in a position where you can’t see the lights flash (also to confirm locking).

It’s probably possible to turn this feature off via the menus on the infotainment screen. If you don’t like this beeping feature, it’s a fair bet your neighbours don’t either.

There’s only one solution you need to worry about here and that’s taking the vehicle back to GWM and insisting that this important safety gear is made to work properly and that the problem with the shifting is sorted out permanently and completely.

This is why we have new-vehicle warranties, and the consumer law in this country is quite simple when it comes to manufacturers’ responsibilities in situations like yours. In the case of safety gear not working properly, the vehicle is technically unroadworthy, so you wouldn’t even be able to sell it.

It sounds as though the material the dashboard structure or skin is made from has started to collapse or degrade in some other way. If the structure beneath the vinyl skin of the dashboard fails, you could conceivably wind up with a mis-shapen dash.

While that might sound trivial, it’s important that this gets fixed as this part of the dashboard houses the airbag. And if the opening for the airbag is not the right shape or is compromised somehow, it could affect the correct deployment of the airbag in a crash. And the consequences of that aren’t hard to imagine.

Although it’s an inconvenience to lose your car for any length of time, it might be the only way the service team can diagnose the problem and attempt a fix. We like to remind each other that car makers have obligations under consumer law, but it also pays to remember that, as the consumer, you also need to give the manufacturer the opportunity to put things right if it can.

The best solution would be for the dealer to provide a courtesy car while yours is in dry dock.

The fact that it sometimes runs perfectly means there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with the engine’s intrinsic bits and pieces. If there was, it would never run perfectly at all. Which means you’re probably chasing a sensor, fuel supply or electrical problem.

Cars like this have sensors all over them to inform the computer of what conditions demand, what the driver is asking for and what it should do about all of that. Scanning the car electronically might provide the answer via a fault code. But we’d also take a look at the engine’s stepper motor which is a small electric actuator that controls the throttle position. If this component is not working properly, it can lead to the exact symptoms you’re seeing.