JAECOO 7 SUV (2024 - ) review

This is the thing. At some point you’ll learn that Jaecoo is supposed to be the ‘upmarket’ offshoot of Omoda – Lexus to Omoda’s Toyota, if you like. But based on the 7 alone you wouldn’t really understand that, because it's a thing with the ostensible quality of a mid-market family car (we’ll get to that), but with a budget price tag and two power options that look and feel like they're aimed at the lower end of the market. The sort of thing MG does quite well, basically. There are three versions of the 7, effectively. A plain old 1.6-litre turbo petrol model with front-wheel drive, the same engine with four-wheel drive, and a ‘Super Hybrid System’ plug-in (PHEV) that claims 56 miles of electric range (nice) and 403mpg (LOL). You'll get about 50mpg from it, probs. The petrols will give you miles-per-gallon in the low-to-mid 30s, which isn’t ideal, but that’s offset by the cost of buying the thing. And whatever the miles-per-gallon, a top-spec plug-in hybrid for £35,000 is excellent value, especially if you're a short-distance user and can keep the battery topped up at home or work. In that case it'll cost very little in fuel.

At this stage it’s quite hard to say how reliable the Jaecoo will be, especially given the brand is new to Europe. That said, the 7 is built on a chassis used by literally millions of other cars, thanks to the sheer scale of Chery International (2.6 million global sales in 2024). A rapidly expanding UK dealer network means you’ll be close to help if it’s needed, too – not always the case with new Chinese brands. The 7 comes with a seven-year, 100,000-mile warranty.

Chery says that the Jaecoo 7 has received a five-star Euro NCAP rating, although as we're writing this (February 2025), Euro NCAP itself hasn’t confirmed. We counted 21 safety system acronyms on the spec sheet, including ELK (emergency lane keeping), MCB (multiple collision defence system), ICA (integrated cruise assist), DOW (door opening warning), CSCA (corner speed control assist), and IES (intelligent elude system). If that’s all a bit TL;DR (too long; didn’t read), then in short, every 7 comes with a dizzying array of systems designed to prevent you from hitting things, or protect you if you do. As a result, however – and as usual these days – this all means that the 7 bongs a lot. Really a lot. It also has an especially aggressive lane-keeping system that applies a strangely magnetic force to the steering wheel if the car senses you’re about to drift out of lane. Proper annoying. But then, most of these mandated safety things are. Over to you, Euro NCAP... #bringbackbuttons #stopthebongs

You’d be hard pressed to find someone that says anything other than the Jaecoo 7 is a comfy car. It’s not a luxurious car, nor an especially refined one – see the Power section for more detail on that – but it all feels fairly relaxing (bongs aside) in a very non-specific way. The driving position is tall and commanding, and the ride quality is broadly comfy, with the caveat that it’s probably a bit too bumpy at times, especially at low speed. The steering is super-duper light too, which is the sort of thing that upsets car reviewers (“NO FEEL!”) but for most drivers actually means “effortless” and therefore comfortable. There’s loads of space in every which way too. In short, the Jaecoo 7 is a lot more composed, a lot more together, and a lot more generally agreeable than you might assume from a brand with little-to-no pedigree in Europe.

Plenty of Jaecoo dealers will chose to play the equipment card when trying to convince a showroom visitor to buy one of these instead of a Nissan Qashqai or a Peugeot 3008 or a Skoda Karoq or a VW Tiguan or a Cupra Terramar or a Renault Scenic or a Hyundai Tucson or a Kia Sportage or… you get the idea. It's a powerful card to play too, because even a basic 7’s specification list takes longer to read than Manchester City’s FFP charge sheet. Big alloy wheels, a proper panoramic sunroof, heated and electrically adjustable front seats, a cooled wireless phone charger, a massive central touchscreen, wireless smartphone mirroring… we’ll stop listing stuff now. Deluxe spec by name and nature. The only other trim level, Luxury, isn’t really a trim level at all because it’s what you get as standard with the four-wheel drive petrol version or the hybrid. The extras are nice though: Sony stereo, heated rear seats, cooled front seats, other stuff. Nice. Oh, and in a first for the car industry (possibly), the interior of the petrol versions and the hybrid one are different. Well, we say “different - the petrol versions have a chunky gear selector between the front seats and the door trim has exposed screws for… and we promised ourselves we wouldn’t use this word, but… a more “utilitarian” feel. At least we didn’t say “rugged” though. Phew.

Choice is limited to a 1.6-litre petrol engine or a petrol-and-electric plug-in hybrid setup, the former powering the four-wheel drive version too. All get an automatic gearbox. Whichever you choose, any ‘premium’ pretence the car has is largely undone when you press the accelerator. It’s easy to elevate a car’s interior with a massive touchscreen and a bit of soft-touch plastic, but it’s more difficult to engineer in a sense of proper refinement. The plug-in hybrid is the quietest and smoothest by nature because plenty of its low-speed miles can be done using the electric motor alone. But no Jaecoo 7 is a quick Jaecoo 7, and nor are the petrol engines especially quiet. Laggy accelerator response in both engine setups make the car feel quite sluggish, albeit, if you’re never in a hurry it’s never really an issue. And, ultimately, you‘re getting when you pay for.