First Drive: Chery Tiggo 7 Pro. Best-priced small SUV?
Few cars fill their niche quite as completely as the new Chery Tiggo 7 Pro. Riding high on the outlook for possible record passenger car sales, Chery's attention has turned to the growing midsize-SUV category, where the pickings are rich if you get the packaging right, but fierce competition leaves little margin for error. Go big, go bold, or go home.
The Chery Tiggo 7 Pro is no "four-door sports coupe-sedan crossover" designed to squeeze a few thousand extra sales out of the grey area between existing models. Slotting in-between the smaller, less powerful Tiggo 4 Pro, and the larger, three-row Tiggo 8 Pro, this newest SUV is designed to staunch a leak in Chery's newfound and growing customer base.
Sports goggles
It looks tougher than the Tiggo 4 Pro. Beefier and more purposeful. More good news is that the 18" alloy wheels are standard regardless of trim. The front-end styling is distinctly Chery too, with bold LED headlamps in its three-dimensional diamond-shaped grille. Up close, the mesh looks a little plasticky, but from across the mountain plains the whole effect leaves the Tiggo 7 Pro as though wearing sports goggles.
Or, more likely, viewed across the parking lot. Chery says it built the SUV for adventurers and off-roaders. The reality is that the furthest most drivers will get into the rough and tough is jumping a curb or towing a few MTBs down a muddy path. Handily, then, the Tiggo 7 Pro is built for just such eventualities.
No Baja in the cards
There's front-wheel drive only, which pairs a 1.5-litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder engine with a 9-speed CVT transmission.
Chery's test route was no Baja rally, nor was it more than most Tiggo 7 Pro owners would consider tackling. It was an urban road trip which featured a gravel stretch with decreased visibility at times. The 108 kW and 210 Nm of torque figures were more than sufficient, particularly when the gravel surface got skittish and the Tiggo 7 Pro's rear end could be provoked into some entertaining – but readily-controlled – sliding.
Chery quotes fuel consumption at 6.8l/100 km, which proved to be quite a stretch compared to the 10l/100 km recorded during our launch drive. The brake pedal has been tweaked over the bigger three-row SUV, for what Chery says should be a more responsive feel, though it's still on the soft side. Better is the quick ratio for the steering.
On the road, though, things are far less entertaining. The Tiggo 7 Pro is certainly not the quietest, but where it does make up for this shortcoming is a cabin that is spacious front and rear. Chery's cabin is well designed and the touch-points punch above the sticker price.
Screens and more screens
Dual-zone climate control, power-adjustable front seats, and smart entry and start are standard across the range. For convenience, there's a triple-screen setup; a large 10.25" touchscreen infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto rests in the middle, flush-mounted below is a high-resolution screen for the climate control system, while a 7" digital centre information panel is reserved in front of the driver.
Elsewhere, the Executive model has a myriad of safety and security features as standard; collision mitigation braking, lane-keeping assistance, lane departure warnings, and adaptive cruise control with a 360-degree around-view monitor.
It's a bit of a shame, though, that the whole cabin is needlessly dark and sober. The seats are offered in black, while the dashboard is monolithic in its slabs of black in various textures. I wish Chery had reconsidered the gloss black plastic – it's a magnet for dust and fingerprints – and borrowed some of the lighter finishes it used to such good effect in the Tiggo 8 Pro.
More… of nearly everything
Practicality really is the key here, and while the Tiggo 7 Pro may look tougher and more rugged than the average Chery, the engineers and designers made sure it didn't fall too far from the family tree. That's only a good thing, really, as is competitive pricing. The Chery Tiggo 7 Pro Distinctive is priced at R409,900 and the Executive at R444,900.
Chery needed a five-seat mid-CUV. It could've taken the easy route, dropped the third row from the Tiggo 8 Pro, and called it a day. Instead, the Tiggo 7 Pro stands apart from its bigger brother, a little more dynamic and a little more aggressive, though without sacrificing practicality or safety. It's hard to imagine that not being a winning combination – sluggish engine aside.
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