Omoda 5 (2024 - ) review

The lack of any sort of hybridisation helps the Omoda 5 nail that eye-catching starting price, and it’s only a small leap to the fancier of the two trim levels with its extra kit. On the face of it that’s a tempting proposition if you’re comparing it with more established players like the Nissan Qashqai or Kia Sportage. Any money-saving smugness will be short-lived when you look at the fuel efficiency and CO2 figures, though, the latter meaning you get clobbered on the first year VED compared with more efficient or hybridised rivals. Some long and steady motorway miles at least scored us some more favourable fuel consumption than we got on our first drive but the 5 is hardly an efficient car and what you save on purchase, finance or lease prices may well be swallowed by those tax and fuel costs. That hybrid version can’t come soon enough.

Omoda is new here, so we don’t yet have a feel for reliability and have reflected this in our score. That said, it’s owned by Chery which has been around for a while and has sold 12m cars globally, which gives some reassurance. For additional peace of mind, the Omoda 5 comes with a Kia-rivalling seven-year/100,000-mile warranty and extended breakdown cover if you keep up with the service schedule. Omoda is also planning to have around 100 dealerships in the UK by the end of the year, so there should be support should anything go wrong.

We like Omoda’s policy of including all the safety kit it offers as standard on both trim levels, rather than making you pay extra for the good stuff like many rivals. In the modern way there are sensors, warnings and interventions to stop you straying out of your lane, pulling out into an unseen vehicle in your blindspot, running into something ahead of you, breaking the speed limit or doing anything else untoward. Great in theory but even by the standards of the genre we found the lane-keeping heavy-handed in its interventions and the speed limit warnings frequently wrong, while the attention monitor scolded us for not paying attention to the road even when were behaving ourselves and not looking at the screens. Which you often have to for too many of the basic functions. Common complaints we level at all modern cars but the more established names spend the time and money to make these systems less intrusive and annoying in everyday situations.

With its vague steering and somewhat bouncy ride quality we’ll say the Omoda feels a little half-baked dynamically, though it’s easy-going enough. To its credit it was quiet, comfortable and reasonably refined over the long motorway miles we used it for, while a previous test on country roads showed it can handle a lumpy British lane as well. General comfort levels are good. Up front the seats are supportive and there’s a decent amount of storage space. However, overall, the Omoda 5 doesn’t feel as roomy as you would expect for the size of the car. Taller occupants will find limited headroom in the front and back – particularly on models with the panoramic roof – and longer-legged passengers will find space limited in the rear. The boot is a usable size, but not particularly large for a mid-size SUV. While our test car looked plush from a distance, on closer inspection we noticed a lack of attention to detail. There were bits of plastic covering and alignment marks on the seat runners and some loose carpet in the footwell, making it feel unfinished and rushed rather than the premium or luxury.

The key selling point of the Omoda 5 is the amount of equipment you get as standard. Entry-level Comfort trim cars come with two 10.25-inch screens, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a wireless phone charger, front and rear parking sensors, and a reversing camera. Upgrading to a top of the range Noble model gets you dual-zone climate control, a 360-degree camera, heated front seats with a heated steering wheel, and a sunroof. We found the touch-screen was responsive, but the menus were fiddly to navigate. Possibly more a safety point but we’d also question the need to have the phone charging pad so high and prominently placed on the centre console, given notifications will be in your line of sight while driving and the temptation to pick it up and check them at the lights will be hard to resist for some drivers. We prefer Vauxhall’s policy of tucking it away and behind a clear ‘visor’ to help you avoid distraction and the risk of points, a fine or, indeed, an accident if you can’t leave your phone alone.

It might not have any electrification but the turbocharged petrol engine powering the Omoda 5 has more zip than many of its rivals, even if it’s a little unpredictable about when it’s going to come on strong and when it isn’t. A standard automatic gearbox is impressive at the price (you’ll pay a lot more for the same in something like a Sportage) but sometimes struggles to keep up with the engine, explaining the occasional unpredictability of the acceleration, and moments where instead of speed you just get a lot of noise and not much action. We also kept shifting into manual mode by accident when pulling away, leaving the engine screaming in first gear while we tried to figure out how to get back into D. Somewhat embarrassing and none of these are issues you’ll suffer in the smoother and quieter electric version.