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Great Wall X240 gets a facelift

Ateco's Daniel Cotterill says the facelift and equipment changes are part of a refresh across the Great Wall Motors range.

... with a facelift and more gear for the X240 and a facelift plus price slice for the V240 ute. And importers Ateco promise there's more to come with diesel engines and automatic transmission options on the way.

For now the X240 wagon scores new front panels and grille, Bluetooth, steering wheel controls, DVD player, reversing camera, follow-me-home headlights, rain sensitive wipers and a touch-screen for the audio system. The on-road price remains at $23,990.

The Great Wall V240 dual cab also gets new front panels and grille plus the steering wheel controls but here the on-road price has been cut $1000 to $22,990 for the two-wheel drive; the four-wheel drive is a $3000 option.

Ateco spokesman Daniel Cotterill says the facelift and equipment changes are part of a refresh across the range.

"The V240 ute's price has dropped for a couple of reasons, the currency's quite good at the moment and, with China being a left-hand drive market, it cost them money to develop and homologate right-hand drive vehicles," Cotterill said. "They're now starting to recoup some of those costs (Australia's already sold 10,000 Great Walls) and we can pass on these savings to the customer."

And Ateco's push to broaden the range is paying dividends.

"The main things we've been chasing are diesel engines and automatic transmissions, we'd dearly love to be operating in those segments," he said. "And we should see those (diesel and auto options) later in the year, most likely in the third quarter, starting with manual diesel utes first."

The first diesel option is likely to be Great Wall's 2 litre, 110kW turbocharged engine and the automatic transmission, for the wagon at least, should be a five-speed. For now Ateco managing director Ric Hull is upbeat about this month's upgraded machines following Great Wall's promising start on the Australian market with 10,000 sold in the 18 months since launch.

 "These upgrades and the extra value they add, along with the price decrease on the utility, will help us sell another 10,000 Great Wall vehicles in 2011," according to Hull.