Great Wall V240 News

Chinese made Great Wall V200 ute scores three stars for safety as sales continue to fall. The reputation of Chinese utes has taken another hit as the latest crash tests award just three stars out of five for safety -- and sales continue to freefall after the asbestos scare of 2012. The Great Wall Motors single-cab ute is one of the cheapest workhorse vehicles used by tradies, with a starting price of $18,990 drive-away. But according to independent crash test authority -- the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) -- the Great Wall Motors single-cab trayback ute scored a “poor” three-star rating out of a possible five. This is a modest improvement from the two-star rating scored for other Great Wall utes in 2009 and 2010, in which the airbags proved ineffective at improving the safety score. In the latest crash test at 64km/h the Great Wall ute’s “compartment lost structural integrity, accelerator pedal movement was excessive, and steering column components were a potential source of knee injury for the driver”, said the ANCAP report, which awarded just 6 points out of 16 for the offset test. The safety of trade vehicles has historically lagged behind that of passenger cars, even though utes are now the third-biggest vehicle category after small cars and SUVs. However, under new Occupational Health and Safety guidelines, many companies are now enforcing a five-star policy when purchasing utility vehicles. The Volkswagen Amarok was the first ute to be awarded a five-star safety rating in Australia, in 2011, but several other brands have followed since, including the Ford Ranger, Holden Colorado, Mazda BT-50, and certain Toyota HiLux and Isuzu D-Max models. The Nissan Navara and Mitsubishi Triton score four stars for safety but are due to be replaced by all-new five-star models next year. The poor safety result for the Great Wall Motors ute comes as sales figures show Chinese vehicles are no longer a threat to the established brands. Sales of Chinese vehicles have been in freefall in the two years since 21,000 Great Wall utes and SUVs and 2250 Chery passenger cars were recalled for having engine parts containing asbestos. At their peak in 2012, more than 12,100 Chinese vehicles were sold locally. But so far this year just 2500 Chinese vehicles have been sold, a dramatic drop of 54 per cent from the same period last year. There are now at least seven Chinese automotive brands on sale in Australia but Great Wall and Chery are the largest; the others are yet to publish sales figures. A spokesman for the Australian distributor of Great Wall Motors, Chery and Foton said the established Japanese car makers had come down in price, putting pressure on Chinese brands. “The massive devaluation of the Japanese Yen … has meant that well established Japanese vehicle brands are able to be much more competitively priced in the Australian market than was the case when Great Wall launched here in mid 2009,” said spokesman Daniel Cotterill. He said emerging brands traditionally compete on price, but that price advantage had all but evaporated over the past two years. “Where once a Great Wall ute might have had six or seven thousand dollars of price advantage over an established Japanese brand, that is not the case at the moment in many instances,” said Cotterill. “Currency fluctuations are cyclical and we remain optimistic that our competitive price position will return.” The Chinese car sales downturn comes as another division of Great Wall Motors has signaled its intention to set up in Australia under the Haval brand name. However, the all-new Haval SUV that was due in Australia this year has been delayed indefinitely after it was withdrawn from sale in China twice because of build quality concerns. 

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. 

She wants to know which of the car brands will improve over the next five years.  It sounds like a quick-and-easy question but there are booby traps on a couple of fronts.For a start, what does she mean by 'improve'? Is it just sales, the big measure for brands like Toyota, or is it secondhand vaues - so critical to Audi - or the technology coming to companies like Hyundai and Kia, or any number of other subjective and objective measurements?Looking back over the past five years, Audi has made huge sales gains by improving its showroom impact, Mazda has improved on all fronts and is now almost challenging Ford's sales in Australia, and Subaru has reinvented itself as one of the safest and most-dependable brands - almost the Volvo of the 21st century.They are clear improvers.  But things will change in the next decade for many of the 50-plus car brands now sold in Australia.For a start, expect big things from Great Wall, Geely and Chery of China. Probably not on the safety or quality front, but they will do some big numbers once they get cheap-and-cheerful passenger cars into local showrooms.The Korea brands - Hyundai and Kia - are also set for big improvements. Both want to be top-five sellers in Australia before 2020, each has plans for significant local tweaking of their cars, and believe they can out-Toyota the world's biggest car brand at its own game.  What's that? Building sensible transport devices that suit the majority of drivers and doing it at a sensible price.Audi will also continue to improve. It has monster plans for new models, as well as a burning desire to trump BMW on the sales charts.  BMW? It's looking hit-and-miss at the moment, based on cars as good as the new 5 Series in the same showroom as the underwhelming X1 and GT, but it knows its strengths and has a huge following.Benz should also continue to power, Volvo is making big gains on styling that finally matches its safety but has a question over Chinese owners, and Mazda will continue to go forward.  On the local front, Toyota desperately needs something special in its showrooms. And the Camry hybrid is doing nothing to boost the competitiveness of its locally-made cars.Ford? If it can convince Australians to buy a four-cylinder Falcon it will be a winner. But that is a big, big job and recent history shows little sign of the marketing muscle needed for the job.Which brings us to Holden, which gambles next year with a local manufacturing commitment to the compact Cruze. It's a game changing move and one with the potential to make the red lion brand one of the biggest improvers of the next five and 10 years.Follow Paul Gover on Twitter!

...we go electric.More specifically we investigate the promise of electric cars.We are starting to hear that they are close to arriving on our streets but you know what I think there is one thing we are forgetting. Not everyone drives their car into a garage every night were there is a power point and extension cord standing by.Most people, especially in city areas where you would think electric cars will be more popular to start with, park their cars on the street at night.So how do they recharge their batteries? Well there is a new scheme being planned for Canberra that will see recharging stations installed in car parks and other public places.Plus...in the old days tradies and farmers pretty much had the choice of just a couple of manufacturers when it came to their vehicles.Now a days however the range of commercial vehicles available is huge. There is about to be even more competition with the introduction of Chinese made Great Wall Motors utes.Mahindra Australia has also unveiled a brand new model of their pik up range.For all this and much more, listen to the podcast above. 

Where will it all end? Australian automotive manufacturers and importers are hoping the answer is: right here, right now.For the first time in months, there's a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel that may not be another oncoming train.The Federal Government's cash handouts have helped the Australian economy dodge a recession on a technicality, consumers are spending again and car showrooms are beginning to fill with a whole lot of shiny new offerings.With a fresh financial year dawning, something in the order of 60 all-new or refreshed models are waiting in the wings before the end of 2009.Ranging from the first of the Chinese invaders to a couple of machines from the supercar stratosphere, these are the recession-busters the automotive industry is relying on.Here are a handful of the key players in this revival.Great Wall Motors AFTER what seems an age of yes-we-are, no-we-aren't games, the first of the Chinese-made brigade will be in showrooms next month.A pair of workhorse utes — the 4x4 V240 (known as the Wingle in China) and the 4x2 SA220 — will come as single-specification models with prices expected to be "around two-thirds of their logical competitors".That could mean a starting figure of $17,000 to $19,000.Alfa Romeo MiToTHE classic Italian marque's new baby, which arrives next month, has the task of taking on BMW's iconic Mini in the quest for buyers with more cash than responsibilities."It's a growing market as people downsize their cars to achieve better fuel economy but don't want to give up performance or style," Alfa Romeo Australia's Edward Rowe says."Our aim is to beat the Mini on both price and equipment."To that end, Rowe says the newcomer — which sits on a Fiat Punto platform — will launch as two models: the 88kW MiTo and a sparkier, 114kW MiTo Sport.Both have turbocharged, 1.4-litre petrol engines with six-speed manual gearboxes. Expect a starting price in the low $30,000 range.Hyundai i20AFTER the success of the i30 hatch and wagon, Hyundai has high hopes for its German-designed, Indian- made small car.Expected to hit showrooms towards the end of this year, the three-door and five-door i20s will sit at the higher end of the light-car segment, beginning at $16,000 to $17,000.This will leave the popular Getz as Hyundai's entry-level model, but will likely spell the end of the Accent.VW Golf GTITHE sixth-generation Golf GTI arrives in October with all the shiny new technology seen on its more mundane stablemates but lots more go.With 155kW driving through a new limited-slip differential, it promises all the attitude of its predecessors wrapped into a more refined package."It has all the safety and enhancements of the Golf VI and more power than the outgoing GTI, yet it's quieter and more efficient," VW Australia's Karl Gehling says.Pricing isn't yet set, but should be close to the outgoing model's $39,990.Holden VE CommodoreTHE first mid-life makeover for GM-Holden's "billion-dollar baby" is likelyto be remarkable for what ishappening under the skin rather than for any cosmetic body changes.A founding member of the Large Family Car segment — the hardest- hit sector of the industry over the past couple of years — the Commodore will celebrate GM's survival with a much more focused and fuel-efficient engine package.Although a four-cylinder option isn't on the cards, a smaller V6 is. That could be a three-litre or even a version of the 2.8-litre that has recently been shipped to Mexico for the Cadillac SRX.Expect to see it around October.