2024-02-09 19:25:05
At the end of September last year, the Jetour brand presented its third model in Russia – Jetour X70 Plus. And already in January, representatives announced that the fourth car of the Jetour family would come to us – Jetour T2. But while the latter is just getting ready for release, we took the Jetour X70 Plus for a test.
If you suddenly forgot or didn’t know, then Jetour is a sub-brand of the well-known Chery automobile concern from the Middle Kingdom. The brand was formed in 2018 as a separate brand aimed at young buyers who love to travel. It is already represented not only in China, but also in the regions of the Middle East, Africa, Central and South America. According to company representatives, the brand demonstrated one of the highest growth rates in China, selling 700,000 cars from January 2018 to March 2023. Unlike Omoda, Jaecoo and Exeed, in Russia Jetour is developing separately from the parent brand Chery is the official distributor of Jetur Motor Rus LLC.
The new Jetour X70 Plus is a sort of intermediate link between the full-size X90 Plus and the Jetour Dashing urban crossover. From the first, the new product inherited a spacious interior; as brand representatives say, it is the largest in its class. The latter was achieved due to the fact that, unlike the Chinese version, in Russia the 70th model is supplied only in a five-seater version, while in its homeland it exists in a seven-seat version. The length of the car itself is 4724 mm, width – 1900 mm, height – 1720 mm. The wheelbase reaches 2720 mm, and the minimum ground clearance is 204 mm.
Indeed, there is a lot of space in the crossover’s cabin; I, with a height of 187 cm, can sit behind myself quite easily. It’s comfortable to sit in the back, there is room above your head, despite the presence of a large panoramic roof with an automatic sunroof in its front part, there is room in the legs. And the adjustable backrest and folding center armrest help you sit more comfortably. At the same time, a spacious trunk of 438 liters remains available, and the tailgate is electrically operated.
The trunk is quite good, and you can increase the useful area for large cargo by folding the backs of the rear sofa separately from the passenger compartment, which form a flat floor. Interestingly, in the Jetour X70 Plus, the trunk lighting is located on the inside of the lid in the form of two LED lights that illuminate you from above. The solution is unusual, but, to be honest, there would be more light if the lamps were installed inside the department.
Since the brand is focused on travel, rear passengers have their own climate control unit and two separate air vents. Plus, below, frankly speaking, in not the most convenient place, there are physical keys for turning on the heated seats, and USB-A and USB-C connectors are located almost on the floor. In addition, on the backs of the front seats, passengers have access to not only one large pocket, but also additional pockets for the same smartphones, which is convenient.
Sitting in the driver’s seat, you immediately notice the similarity of the interior design with cars with a three-pointed star. Here, the electric seat adjustments are also located on the door cards, and a position memory is also available to the driver. There are also buttons for turning on three-level heating and ventilation, which, however, only heat or cool the pillow. Similarities with Mercedes are also added by atmospheric lighting similar in design, as well as controls on the steering wheel. The latter are visually made in the style of the German, only the touchpads here are fake, on the left side there is a physical button, and on the right – just a stub. Well, where would we be without two 10.25-inch displays housed in a single box, a la the first generation MBUX. The displays are of good quality, with HD resolution, but they are physically smaller than their counterparts in the same Chery cars.
According to the materials, everything is traditional for modern Chinese. The details that we have at the eye level, or rather, up to the armrests, are made of high-quality materials, including soft plastic and elements covered with artificial leather. Below everything is made of hard plastic panels, and the same large pockets on the doors flaunt bare plastic. Plus, the Jetour X70 Plus has quite a lot of metal-like decorative elements, which are visually pleasing to the eye, but tactilely disappointing, since the plastic is thin and the paint is the most common silver, even without metallic coating. Moreover, such pseudo-metallic parts are found not only in the form of decorative overlays that you may not even touch; what’s worse, they are used in controls with which you will come into contact anyway. That is, these buttons and handles, when you touch them, feel very toy-like, which is frustrating. Otherwise, there is nothing to complain regarding the X70 Plus’s interior; the interior design is modern, the color palette is interesting, and the leather upholstery is pleasant to the touch.
There are also no questions regarding the driving position; the steering wheel is adjustable in two planes, and the longitudinal adjustments of the seat are enough even for tall drivers. The seats are comfortable, with pronounced lateral support, adjustable lumbar support and the correct profile. The only thing is that the seats are a little soft, the cushion is short, there is no lift in its front part, and obese people may find them cramped.
The car’s media system is simple, even without the main screen, which immediately replaces the menu. Despite its simplicity, the system slows down slightly at some points, although not critically. The set of features is standard for most Chinese cars: telephone, music, radio, video from external sources and the CarbitLink smartphone screen mirroring system. There is no navigation or support for Android Auto/Apple CarPlay.
There are two themes available for the digital dashboard, one more classic and one modern. Unfortunately, you cannot work with data on the dashboard; you can only view information, but at least data on incoming calls is available here. The interface is not overloaded with information, and, what’s nice, it displays data on the work of the assistants, so you can clearly see warnings from the blind spot monitoring system or the work of the lane tracking system.
Connecting phones via Bluetooth does not cause problems, data synchronization occurs correctly. The speakerphone in the car also works flawlessly. You can work with call lists or the phone book only from the main display of the media system.
To connect and charge devices in the front part of the cabin, two USB-A connectors are available, which are located on the lower tier of the central tunnel. There is also wireless charging according to the Qi standard, but it does not work well with devices in cases. The shelf on the lower tier has a rubberized coating, so you can safely put smartphones there, the only thing is that you don’t see them there, access to them is difficult, and when you leave, you can easily forget regarding the phone. Modern gadgets charge quickly from the car’s on-board network, so there is no need to use additional adapters.
In the maximum configuration of the Jetour X70 Plus, as we tested, the climate control unit is made in the form of a separate 9-inch touch display with convenient adjustment knobs directly on it. Unlike the media system, the climate system menu is not localized, which is very strange, it’s good that there is English, and not just Chinese. The system screen is responsive, and all the data on it is easy to read; by default, it is covered with a matte film that does not collect fingerprints. In addition to standard options, on the climate control unit you can activate seat heating and ventilation, as well as turn on air ionization in the cabin. The knobs here are active, you can use them to adjust the temperature, and by clicking on the screen inside, switch to adjusting the airflow intensity; in other sections, the binding of actions changes. Three-zone climate control works perfectly in automatic mode and requires virtually no adjustments during the process. The car is also well prepared for our climatic conditions, in addition to heating all the seats, it has a heated steering wheel, heated injectors and the entire windshield, of course, there is a heated rear window and side mirrors.
The driver assistants in the X70 Plus are sufficient. There’s adaptive cruise control, which works well, braking ahead of traffic in advance, and which is complemented by a lane-keeping system that reads even barely visible lane markings. There is also a blind spot monitoring system with indications on the mirrors themselves and on the dashboard. The maximum version has an all-round camera with a transparent hood, allowing you to look under the bottom. But although the picture is displayed in HD, it is a little soapy, although it helps you navigate in difficult conditions. On the plus side, I note that the data from the parking sensors is superimposed on the image from the camera in graphical form, and also when reversing, a warning regarding an obstacle is displayed there. In addition, the car also has a built-in video recorder, which is located behind the interior mirror, which means it will be useful in any weather conditions.
As was the case in Dashing, the new Jetour X70 Plus pleasantly surprised me with its sound insulation; in the cabin, in any road conditions, although not ideal, there is still silence, so on the highway there is no need to even raise your voice to talk with passengers. The suspension—McPherson front and independent multi-link rear—doesn’t let you down here either, it’s soft, handles most of the road surface unevenness well without disturbing passengers, but because of this, someone might start getting motion sickness in the car. The suspension settings in the crossover were adjusted for the sake of comfort, so the engineers had to sacrifice control. The car does not steer very well, the controls are weak, there is a lack of feedback, and the X70 Plus is absolutely not conducive to dynamic movement. Plus, the crossover has a very large turning radius, and there is noticeable roll when cornering. That is, for measured movement, as befits a family crossover, the car is ideal, but I would not recommend playing checkers on the Moscow Ring Road.
Despite the comfortable chassis settings, the car was given a rather aggressive and sporty appearance, which does not fit in with its general character. Here, attention is drawn to the large radiator grille and narrow all-LED optics of very decent quality. The stern also looks fresh and original – largely thanks to the lights combined with an LED strip. Plus we have a dual exhaust system with four tips, you just look and think: “A rocket, no less.” The move with the exterior design here is rather marketing, its task is to attract the attention of young fathers to the car, who need a practical and roomy car, but mentally they want to become the owners of a dynamic sports coupe.
The model is available with us only with one 1.6-liter four-cylinder TGDI turbocharged engine producing 190 hp, which is paired with a 7-speed 7DCT robotic transmission with two wet clutches. Front-wheel drive only.
The engine-box combination is tuned perfectly, the engine power is enough for free overtaking on the highway, and the gearbox quickly and smoothly changes gears. There is only one unpleasant moment: at low speeds the robot often rushes between gears, slipping you a higher gear when it is not necessary, or, conversely, suddenly going down. Moreover, you go out onto the same Moscow Ring Road, pick up speed, and immediately 7DCT starts working as it should. Here the situation is unclear, either the robotic gearbox has not yet adapted; the mileage on our car was regarding 1800 km at the beginning of the test, or there is something wrong with its brain and reflashing will solve the issue. I am inclined to the first option, since at the Jetour event I drove another X70 Plus and there the box behaved completely adequately. Regarding fuel consumption, I got regarding 11 liters per 100 km in the city, which practically coincides with the manufacturer’s declared value for these conditions – 10.9 liters.
The cost of Jetour X70 Plus on the Russian market in the Comfort configuration is 2,999,900 rubles, in the Luxury configuration – 3,299,900 rubles. The model is available in 7 body colors: silver (Nano Silver), white (Khaki White), gray-blue (Hunting Gray), gray-beige (Phantom Gray), black (Starry Black), blue (Navy Blue) and red (Soul Red).
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