Chery Tiggo 9 Review: The £43k Luxury 7-Seat SUV That's Impossible to Ignore
At £43,105, the Chery Tiggo 9 is the cheapest 7-seat SUV on the market and is packed full of luxuries and tech, but is the price representative of great value, or is it all too good to be true? John Marcar has spent two weeks with the Chery Flagship to get the full low-down.
Chery in the UK
In April of this year, I wrote about the Chery Tiggo 4 CSH and gave a brief overview of yet another new Chinese manufacturer selling cars here in the UK. The Tiggo 4 offers exceptional value at around £20k, but while it excels in value for money, it loses out in some areas, including steering feel and overall quality. To see what the other end of the range could offer, I booked the Tiggo 9, the largest and most expensive car in the range, to see whether more money yields a better overall experience.
Tiggo 9: Low-Cost Luxury
The Chery Tiggo 9 is a large plug-in hybrid SUV aimed at the family car market. The model I've been testing is in Summit trim, which offers the most luxuries, bells and whistles at a price equal to that of a new Volkswagen Tiguan or a BMW 2 Series Gran Coupe (both before optional extras).
The Chery's luxuries include a premium Sony sound system, front double glazing, a panoramic glass roof, heated and ventilated seating, massaging front seats, a head-up display, assisted/intelligent cruise control, and even an ionised air-conditioning system that cleverly purifies the air inside the cabin. This combined level of luxury has previously been reserved for the likes of Bentley, Range Rover, and a very well-spec'd BMW. At more than half the price of some competitors, Chery is including them as standard on the top-end Tiggo, making it hard to ignore.
Powertrain and Range
Like the smaller Tiggo 4, the Tiggo 9 utilises Chery's CSH (Chery Super Hybrid) drivetrain system. Under the bonnet is a 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine that primarily acts as a generator for an electric motor until extra oomph is required for hard acceleration and motorway speeds. Alongside the engine is a large 34.4kWh battery, which provides up to 91 miles of electric-only range and a combined range of 650 miles with a full charge and a full tank of petrol.
When working in tandem, the Tiggo 9 delivers an overall power output of 428bhp to all four wheels, delivering a 0-62mph sprint time of under 5.5 seconds.
A huge positive for the Tiggo 9 is how power is delivered and how the battery level is maintained. As standard, the Tiggo 9 accelerates like an EV and feels exceptionally punchy in Sport mode, where the full power is utilised. When the engine needs to fire up to help charge the motor and battery, it does so with little more than a whisper.
Battery Charging times
Those wishing to make the most of the Tiggo 9s EV's capabilities can charge the 34.4kW battery from 20-80% in around 30 minutes with a 71kW DC charger. On a typical 11kW home wall charger, 0-100% charging should be achievable in around 4 hours.
Style and Design
To look at, the Tiggo 9 looks like a luxurious bit of kit, too. There are design elements that have clearly been inspired by some of the more popular luxury SUVs, with hints of the Porsche Cayenne from the rear, Bentley Bentayga from the side, and Audi Q7 from the front three-quarters.
Inside, the cabin offers plush leatherette upholstery, a large infotainment screen with smartphone connectivity, and additional convenience features such as a 50W wireless phone-charging pad and an air-conditioned storage box to keep drinks cool on long drives.
The steering wheel houses semi-haptic buttons to control cruise control and audio levels and to cycle through information on the instrument cluster. The steering wheel can also be heated to keep your hands nice and warm in the colder months.
The Tiggo 9 is also generously spacious with ample room for large adults in the first and second rows. If required, the 6th and 7th seats can be lifted from the boot floor to offer additional seating, but these are best suited to children or smaller adults.
Driving Review
The good news is that to drive, the Tiggo 9 feels significantly more refined than the Tiggo 4, with vastly improved steering feel and suspension compliance.
There are still certain environments where the ride can feel a little clumsy and steering a little floaty, but on the vast majority of roads, the ride feels reassuringly soft. There's no denying the Tiggo 9 is quite heavy, so it wouldn't be fair to describe the model as particularly dynamic. Once the kerb weight of 2,233 kg is taken into account, it's easy to see why.
In sport mode, the Tiggo 9 can feel unnecessarily powerful; at 428bhp, we're in turbocharged Porsche 911 territory, which isn't at all needed for a car of this size, but if an occasional brisk launch from the traffic lights is what makes you smile, you certainly won't be disappointed.
The tech is, on the whole, decent for the price point, with the assisted cruise control doing a good job of maintaining distances on a motorway at speeds and managing the monotony of start-stop traffic. The soundproofing is also exceptional, with the engine almost entirely inaudible even at full throttle. Road rumble and wind noise are possibly the best I've experienced from a Chinese OEM, and the Sony sound system is good enough to warrant cranking up the volume on your preferred album or podcast.
At slower speeds, the Tiggo 9 delivers the best driving experience and feels on par with a plug-in hybrid priced twice its value. Around town, it can feel quite large; however, the 360-degree camera system is always on hand to assist with tighter manoeuvres.
The steering feels very light in all environments, which is welcome at slow speeds but can take a bit of getting used to on faster country lanes.
Room for improvements
As a new brand in the UK and Western markets in general, there are a few areas where the Tiggo 9 could be improved, and, with time, almost certainly will be.
The second row of seating is a little too firm to be described as comfortable - something most Chinese OEM's are guilty of. A significant miss for the right-hand drive market is that access to the 3rd row is only from the right-hand side of the car, which is less than ideal for the UK market, where we typically park on the left side of the road.
The infotainment system, whilst visually smart, can be clunky and at times frustrating, with Apple CarPlay often refusing to connect and requiring repeated disconnect-and-reconnect cycles to rectify. Radio signals can also be sporadic, with both FM and DAB signals being lost in certain environments. This is something Chery is aware of, and a fix is expected within the next year.
Another big miss for Chery and its interface is a severe lack of buttons you really want to use. On the centre console, there are physical buttons to switch the AC and auto settings on and off, but to regulate fan speed or set temperatures, a sequence of swipes and taps is needed on the touch screen. There is also no physical volume switch for the passenger to control the audio output. Detailed instructions for climate settings can be given via voice commands, but again, it needs a bit of refinement; my most common reply is "Sorry, I haven't learned that yet".
Lastly, the boot space, whilst very impressive at 819 litres in the 5-seat configuration, doesn't allow for any underfloor storage for unsightly items such as the battery charging cables. Perhaps not a problem if you're planning to leave the cables at home, but other manufacturers do a good job of providing somewhere to hide them.
Conclusion: Is the Chery Tiggo 9 A Good Car?
Whilst I'm confident that many considering the Tiggo 9 will be very happy with its comprehensive list of standard features, there are times when it feels like it's trying a little too hard to do a bit too much. A version with less power, reduced tech, and a slightly more user-friendly interface would probably be the better choice for many. That said, given the model's value relative to the competition, it would be difficult to justify paying more for a VW-badged competitor for fewer overall features.
There is a lot to like about the Tiggo 9, and it's far from a bad car. It looks smart, feels luxurious, drives very well, and offers much more than most of the competition. Plus, it's worth noting that Chery, as a newbie brand in the UK, is off to a very strong start. With time, future models will only get better. The first batch of buyers will offer much-needed feedback to retailers, which means new models are likely to be even more refined and better aligned with the demands of Western markets - and that's something worth looking forward to.
Words by John Marcar
Photography by Henry Faulkner-Smith
