Chery J11 News

Having departed the Australian market in 2015, the giant, state-owned Chinese vehicle manufacturer Chery is weeks away from a full-blooded comeback, with the first shipment of 1000 Omoda5 SUVs on the water and scheduled to arrive here by mid-February.

Fuel pump fire risk prompts Chery J11 recall

Chinese cars were tipped to dominate the budget-car class and challenge established brands in half the time it took Japanese and South Korean companies - but the bubble has burst before it's properly inflated. After some early success since becoming the first Chinese brand to go on sale in Australia, Great Wall Motors has hit reverse and its Chinese peers are struggling to get into first gear.Official figures for the first five months of the year show Great Wall Motors deliveries are down by 35 per cent compared with the same period the previous year in a record market that is up by 4.5 per cent.Other Chinese brands such as Foton have also had a stalled start. After announcing big plans two years ago Foton has sold fewer than 300 pick-ups in that time.Budget brand Geely has still restricted its sales to Western Australia and Chery's small cars have been stymied by newer competition from established brands. Chery sales are also down by 35 per cent.The Chery J1 hatchback was the cheapest car in Australia in almost two decades when it went on sale with a $9990 drive-away price in 2011, and is now available with a "pay half now, half later'' deal.But it too has failed to rock the sales charts. ''Sales have slowed for now but they will recover,'' says Daniel Cotterill, the spokesman for Ateco, distributor of Great Wall Motors and Chery passenger cars and the Foton truck range.''It's been frustrating for us and the dealers to not have more new models available to us as quickly as we would like."'The other challenge for Chinese car brands is that mainstream marques such as Suzuki, Nissan and Volkswagen have all responded with quality cut-price contenders priced from $11,990 to $13,990 drive-away. "In some ways we are a victim of our initial success,'' said Cotterill. "Other mainstream brands have had to come down in price to compete with us.''Other hurdles: more than 20,000 Great Wall Motors and Chery vehicles were recalled in August 2012 for having asbestos components in their engines. Chinese cars tend to earn poor to scores in crash tests (between two and four stars when the modern industry norm is five stars).But the companies hope to have a reversal of fortunes with a number of new generation Chinese vehicles made to international standards due in local showrooms in the next two years.''There are new models in the pipeline,'' said Cotterill.''We are confident in the ability of the Chinese to respond the Australian car market and boost sales.''This reporter is on Twitter: @JoshuaDowling 

You might have seen the TV ad for a budget brand ute, the one in which the dopey looking bloke goes “d'oh” because he bought a far more expensive brand.Sure, he's down a few thousand bucks but he, his loved ones and possibly even his employer won't be so quick to self-admonishment should he survive a big prang.The chances of this happy outcome remains lower in Chinese-made working vehicles than in any from the Japanese brands, Ford, Holden or Volkswagen. Much lower in most instances.In the past month, the Australian New Car Assessment Program -- the line-filling moniker for the local agency that crashes cars into walls and rates how they hold up -- crunched the body of and the numbers on the latest such conveyance from Cathay.Foton's Tunland 4WD light-commercial dual-cab was awarded three stars from five. That's almost but not quite as poor as it gets these days, but a possibly generous assessment given the absence of electronic equipment mandatory for the full five stars.Nor is the Tunland especially cheap at $34,500. Hard to grasp why that sum shouldn't include stability control, a fixture standard elsewhere and arguably even more important for vehicles with a high centre of gravity.“There really is no excuse for a new vehicle coming into the market today to be without stability control, which is now mandatory for passenger cars,” ANCAP's Lauchlan McIntosh says.ANCAP is irksomely apt to claim credit for pushing major safety advances that originate with car makers and are compelled by market forces. Yet it has also admitted to being two years behind Euro NCAP in its methodology.There’s no quibbling on this point, however, certainly not when two such old stagers as Toyota's LandCruiser and Mitsubishi's Pajero have both been upgraded to five stars after equipment improvements.The Chinese brands fare not so well. The Chery J1 gets three stars, and the Chery J11 gets two stars. The Great Wall V240 gets two stars and X240 gets four stars. Carsguide does not recommend a vehicle of any sort that has less than four stars. Indeed, we’ve directed our team to not so much as test them. We say you shouldn’t so why should we. Some of us have families. None of us are suicidal. 

The Chery J11 also scored zero in ANCAP's pedestrian tests due to a front-end that "is not friendly to pedestrians and other vulnerable road users." At the other end of the spectrum, the incoming Cruze Series II hatch inherited its sedan sibling's five-star rating and the Hyundai i40 (tested by the European NCAP) also scored five stars.ANCAP chairman Lauchlan McIntosh said the Chery J11 had been scheduled for a side impact test but a recall campaign relating to side impact protection had delayed that. "Under ANCAP's rating system, the poor result in the frontal offset test restricts the Chery J11 to a maximum 2-star rating - irrespective of the outcome of the side impact test," he said.The ANCAP test showed the Chery J11 scored 2 out of 16 in the offset front crash test, which caused the passenger compartment to lose structural integrity and resulted in excessive pedal displacement.Chery spokesman Daniel Cotterill said the compay was "surprised and disappointed" at the J11 crash test result, given the company's internal test results."We were of the view that the J11 would do better than it did - it does however still comply with Australian Design Rules, we work in with ANCAP with this testing and a senior Chery engineer was present at that test."Work is already underway to improve the J11, it could take some time - even though the Chinese move quickly on these matters it will still take some time," he said.Mr McIntosh also said protection from serious chest, leg and foot injury was poor for the driver."ANCAP is still planning to conduct a side impact test on the Chery J11 following completion of the recall campaign. "While this will assess the side impact protection of the vehicle it cannot improve the 2-star rating," he said.The Chinese brand scored a three-star rating for its J1 five-door hatchback earlier this year, as did the Chinese-sourced Geely MK small-car range.Fellow Chinese imports Great Wall had three crash test results in 2010 - the X240 SUV scored four stars and the brand's two light-commercial utes (the SA220 and V240) both rated two stars.The Hyundai i40 achieved its 5-star result following crash tests conducted by EuroNCAP and assessed by ANCAP, while the Holden Cruze Hatch receives a 5-star rating based on tests of the sedan.

Already Australia's lowest priced SUV, the Chery J11 is now $17,990 driveaway thanks to a $2000 cashback offer available until the end of August.Powered by a 2.0-litre four cylinder petrol engine, the J11 features leather seats, airconditioning, power windows, MP3 compatible four-speaker stereo, 16 inch alloys and remote keyless entry.The J11's 2.0 litre engine boasts 102kW power and 182Nm of torque, while safety features include ABS, EBD, dual airbags and front seatbelt pre-tensioners.An automatic transmission is available as part of a $2000 option package that includes cruise control and steering wheel mounted audio controls.The J11 is covered by a three year 100,000km warranty which includes 24/7 roadside assistance."The strong Aussie dollar combined with the massive economies of scale derived by the Chinese auto industry is presenting the Australian car buying public with some genuinely compelling options," Dinesh Chinnappa, general manager of Chery Automotive Australia, said."Why would you buy a small car when you can have an SUV for the same or less money?"