Subaru WRX vs Chery Tiggo 9

What's the difference?

Possibly one of the most perfect performance cars you can drive daily for the price. Dynamic and fun to drive, but also easy to live with thanks to the drive modes for extra comfort, the high ground clearance and the practicality that comes with four doors, lots of storage and a big boot.

The tS Spec B is the priciest WRX in the range, but compared to rivals it's also great value. A car I would buy with my own money for sure.

The Chery Tiggo 9 Super Hybrid is outstanding in many ways, especially value and the way it drives. I can only stress the importance of charging this vehicle frequently, however, otherwise it will go from super hybrid to super fuel consumer.

The WRX tS Spec B stands out from its siblings with 19-inch matte-grey alloy wheels with gold Brembo brakes and if you don’t notice any of that, then surely you won’t miss the gigantic rear wing planted on the boot lid.

The air scoop jutting out of the bonnet like a pizza oven is standard across the WRX range and it looks tough. There’s the rear diffuser which also looks beefy but also a bit plasticky, and the quad exhaust, that’s nice, and so is the note which wafts out of them at idle.

The tS Spec B’s Recaro sports seats are also in other tS grades – they do look and feel good, and offer outstanding comfort and support. 

The rest of the cabin is much the same as other WRX grades with a large portrait-style screen, physical buttons for climate control, and yes, that is a traditional, mechanical handbrake you can see in images.

This is a sporty-looking although slightly outdated cabin compared with more modern rivals.

Chery has crafted a superb-looking SUV here. Sure, the design isn’t ground-breaking or unique, but styling is beautiful from the large grille and multi-spoke wheels to the chrome framed windows and smooth lines of the tailgate.

Our car was painted in 'Aurora Green', which looks stunning in the sunlight. There’s also 'Cosmic Black', 'Star White' and 'Technical Grey'.

The cabin is super modern and luxurious looking, with only a few physical buttons for the hybrid system and climate control. The leather seats are a lovely high-end touch, and while the level of refinement is not up there with the likes of Audi and Lexus flagships the build quality appears to be good.

The Tiggo 9 stretches 4800mm end to end and is 1930mm wide. That classifies it as a large SUV, albeit not an enormous one. A fairly short wheelbase of 2750mm means the cabin space isn’t as voluminous as you might have thought.

What’s so appealing about the WRX is that despite it being a performance car, it’s based on a regular 'small' sedan and with that comes all the practicality of a four-door, five-seater with a big 411-litre boot.

Space inside is excellent with plenty of room up front, while rear legroom is ample enough for me, at 189cm tall, to sit behind my driving position with plenty of headroom, too.

That all said the Recaro seats up front are on the snug side and I know they’re supposed to be, but I’m just saying they might not suit everybody – and by that I mean everybody.

Those with long legs might also find they have to adjust their driving position when letting out the clutch.

Big door pockets throughout, four cupholders, and hidey-holes for items throughout make for good cabin storage.

There are four USB ports and one 12V outlet, but no wireless phone charging to be found.

The Chery Tiggo 9 is not overly large and with a relatively short wheelbase the cabin room is adequate but not outstanding. I’m tall at 189cm, but there is still room for me to sit behind my driving position and headroom is good, too. That said, the cabin floor is high which raises the knee height for second row passengers.

The third row is really just for children and for those occasional but unpredictable times when as a parent you’re suddenly thrown into having to transport more kids home or to parties.

Cabin storage is good with door pockets and cupholders front and back, while a large storage area under the centre console is great for loose items or even a handbag or small backpack.

The wireless charger is perfectly situated on top of the console and features a grippy soft surface.

I would have liked more physical dials and buttons for climate and the stereo, which are accessed through the central screen.

Boot space, according to Chery, is larger than it looks, with the manufacturer saying with the third row up there is 143 litres of cargo capacity and with five seats in place it's 819 litres.  

There is only one grade in the Chery Tiggo 9 Super Hybrid line-up - the Ultimate - and it lists for $59,990. It’s remarkably affordable compared to many rivals and the value is outstanding.

As you might imagine the Ultimate is fully loaded with features.

There are leather seats - powered adjustable, massaging, heated and ventilated in the front, while the second row outboard seats are heated and ventilated, too.

There are big screens - a 15.6-inch media display and a 10.25-inch digital instrument cluster as well as a head-up display. There’s Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, sat nav, a 12-speaker Sony sound system and digital radio.

There are LED headlights and tail-lights, 20-inch alloy wheels, a panoramic glass roof, privacy glass and a power tailgate. 

Who doesn’t love the sound of a boxer engine? Well, probably your neighbours if you own a WRX. And while the tS Spec B doesn’t have any more power than any of the other WRXs – with it sharing the same 2.4-litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder boxer engine as the rest of the line-up – the 202kW and 350Nm feel like the perfect amount of power and torque for this package.

It’s probably been about six months since I last drove a car with a manual gearbox, and that shows how rare they’re becoming when you’re testing a new car nearly every week.

The six-speed manual in the tS Spec B has satisfying clunky shifts and a heavy-feeling clutch pedal, but it all plays along perfectly with this engine, sending the drive to all four wheels.

If you’re looking for a version of the tS Spec B with an automatic transmission you’ll be searching forever because this grade only comes with a manual gearbox. There are WRXs with autos – well, a CVT – the entry grade, the RS and the tS.

The Tiggo 9 Super Hybrid has three electric motors (two at the front and one at the rear), plus a 1.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine. The combined output is a whopping 315kW and 580Nm.

A dedicated hybrid transmission sends drive to all four wheels. 

The WRX tS Spec B manual really likes its fuel – it’s a hungry beastie and everybody who’s about to get into the WRX life should be aware that, like most petrol performance cars, it’s not super fuel efficient.

Subaru is beautifully honest with its fuel consumption figures, which have the the WRX tS Spec B using 10.4L/100km in combined driving and 14.2L/100km in urban environment, which is so close to what we recorded - ours was 14.1/100km after mainly urban driving. You'll also have to feed it 95 RON.

The fuel tank is a healthy 63 litres in volume and that should give you a range of 606km – in theory. Do not test this theoretical range somewhere remote, okay?

The Tiggo 9 Super Hybrid is a plug-in hybrid. There’s a fuel tank for petrol (95 RON minimum) and a charging flap for you to fill up the 34kWh battery.

Super hybrids are so-called because of their relatively big batteries and longer ranges. Chery says on a full 70-litre tank and charged battery the Tiggo 9 Super Hybrid has a range of 1250km (NEDC). The WLPT range isn’t given but while it will still be impressive it would be less than the NEDC. The same goes for the electric-only range of 170km (NEDC).

If you keep the battery charged, fuel consumption is outstanding. In our short time with the car the trip computer was reporting an average 1.4L/100km, which is exactly the manufacturer's claim.

I noticed that once battery charge fell below 20 per cent the fuel economy worsened to 7.1L/100km.

The battery has a 71kW DC charging capacity however and will fill up fast.  But you will have to top up frequently to get the good fuel economy.   

This may sound strange, but a few months ago I was squished into the tiny cockpit of a 2025 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 sitting at the traffic lights wishing I was in the 2020 Subaru WRX STI beside me. And having driven so many supercars and muscle cars in the past, many costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, I still see the WRX as being such a perfect daily driver performance car.

Sure, it doesn't have Porsche 911 dynamics or the straight-line acceleration of many electric cars, but it's the way the way this boxer engine interacts so beautifully the six-speed manual gearbox, combined with sticky all-wheel drive, a wonderful balance and such direct steering that make the WRX ts Spec B feel exactly right.

The tS Spec B is very much at home in the suburbs dotted with roundabouts and obstacles like speed bumps, but they all become part of the fun of driving this car in the same way that when you let it loose and open road it performs happily and so well, too.

The suspension does feel firm, but part of the big news of this tS Spec B is that it now has a drive mode function and this allow you to adjust the suspension, the steering and the throttle response to either sporty or comfort settings. This just makes this car an even more agreeable thing to live with daily.

The Chery Tiggo 9 Super Hybrid drives silently and smoothly with strong acceleration just like an electric car for the most part while in the city at lower speeds.

Hills and higher speeds call on the engine to help but even then the transition is almost imperceptible. 

A comfortable ride with well set up suspension, light and accurate steering make for an impressive and effortless driving experience.

There are downsides, like the brake pedal feel. As in many hybrids there’s a ‘wooden’ sensation and I felt I needed to depress the brake pedal harder and longer to pull up at times. This is a heavy vehicle at 2200kg and brake response could be better.

The active safety tech is also intrusive, as is the case with so many cars these days, but the alerts and warnings can be turned off. 

The Chery Tiggo 9 Super Hybrid hasn’t been assessed by ANCAP yet, but the safety tech is in abundance with everything from AEB, front and rear cross-traffic alerts with braking, lane keeping assistance and blind-spot warning.

For child seats there are three top tether anchor points and two ISOFIX points in the second row only.

There are also 10 airbags onboard.

I’ve mentioned the intrusive safety alerts in the driving section, and while they can be turned off, they can also be life saving.

The WRX tS Spec B is covered by Subaru’s five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty, which while the standard for the mainstream segment, is behind the seven-plus terms we're now seeing from a lot of Chinese and Japanese car brands.

Servicing is recommended every 15,000km/12 months and can be expensive compared to other brands, with the five years of capped price servicing coming to $2692.

The Chery Tiggo 9 Super Hybrid is covered by a seven-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty, while the battery has an eight-year unlimited-kilometre warranty.

There’s also roadside assistance and capped price servicing for seven years at $3174, or an average of $453 per year.

Chery's national dealer network consists of 86 sites, including 21 in Melbourne, 20 in Sydney and 12 in Brisbane.