Discussion
After years & years of buying/modding old Saabs (up to 7 now) I decided on a complete change. I owned the last one for 5 years, a blue 9-3 v6 Aero wagon, just constant niggles & problems and even though I planned to build a big turbo 500hp car I just fell out of love with it after a couple years and wanted rid for a while.
So went on the hunt for something completely different, either full EV or Hybrid and I know they don’t get much love here! But kept getting pulled back to Chinese! So a few saloons I fancied were the BYD Seal (lovely car!!! Interiors very nice!!) Tesla M3 dual motor (bland inside for me, couldn’t live with it but they’re cracking cars) and 3 series BMW. Then SUV’s (never owned one before) Considered the new Jaecoo J8 (just a bit out of budget) J7 Black edition (test drive the j7 luxury but wasn’t fussed on that interior) Cherry Tiggo 9, a few Omoda’s, Leapmotor B10 and had a look at the Tesla model Y, really liked this from the outside but again interior.
After a couple test drives I settled on the Omoda 9. I was after a black one but we test drove a white one first, the white paint has a nice metallic sparkle shimmer to it, test drive another in black but decided on white. Plus there was a 16 week wait for the black one, they just had a white one delivered and I had the keys a few days later.
As an overall package I can’t really fault this, my only real gripe is the drivers aids which can be a little intrusive but I switch these off on any long drives, school run our popping other shops I just leave them on and they’re no real problem.
It feels like a big car to drive! And when I first bought it I kept looking back thinking f
k me that’s massive and be a nightmare to park, but I’ve got used to it. I think It’s only around 6 inches wider/longer than the saab but sit much higher up, loads more interior space so feels huge at first but I got used to it soon enough.
Handling…come back to that!
Performance is great, 450bhp & 516ft/lbs 0-60 in 4.9s so plenty of shove and much quicker than the saab (or even my older grey saloon which was rapid), very linear power delivery (it’s nice) Has 6 different driving modes, eco, normal, sport, snow, sand & off road. And either EV or switch to HEV. Usually just keep it in EV with eco around town and normal/sports on the bypass/mway. Sand and off road starts the engine so HEV.
Onto the hybrid system the engine doesn’t drive any wheels it’s just a generator for the electric motors. You can keep it in initial mode so only uses the electric motors, if the battery drops below 20% then it engages the engine to charge the battery, or Smart mode which does everything for you and charges as and when, or forced mode and this just charges the battery back to 80% and keeps it around there (I think that’s right anyway still finding new stuff out about it!)
Obviously full of tech & toys and these feel like a steep learning curve coming from a 21 year old saab! Infotainment systems not too bad once you get used to it, it does have 3 physical knobs for fan speed, temp & driver mode plus AC has a button. So not everything is controlled with the screen. A couple things could be easier to access though (just have to get used to it) 540 degree camera which is excellent.
Economy/range. It’s 93 electric only range, I’d say it’s pretty accurate. A full tank of fuel plus full charge gets around 700 miles. Mega cheap to run. I stuck 40 quid in here last week and the range went to 340ish miles, saab used to cost £65 and got 260 miles. Sports mode & booting it that eats the battery! And AC or especially pre warming/cooling the car with the app (the apps pretty basic but does everything I need) Driving eco/normal it’s pretty economical.
Interior. Really happy with it, nice place to sit. They’ve nicked a load from Mercedes!!! Has all the toys and creature comforts you need but the UK cars don’t come with massage seats which is a shame, the Jaecoo 8 & Tiggo 9 (same cars more or less) do come with it. Heated steering wheel & electic adjustable, electric/heated/vented seats, rear seat back can be raised or lowered slightly, loads of soft leather…. “leather” (it’s pleather…) bits. Wireless phone charging. Tons of storage. Very comfy to drive. Yeah no issues.
Handing. Yeah not great
Day to day and just driving normally there no issues, it’s no Mx5 though it’ll tell you that much. I think there’s electrically adaptive suspension on here?? Maybe they can sort something there and it forms it up a little in sport mode, same with the steering, it’s incredibly light but I’ve got used to it, sports mode firms this up a bit but I can’t tell much difference.
Practicality it’s a spacious cabin, plenty of storage, boots pretty big, the 9-3 was slightly longer but it’s big enough for us.
So yeah! I’ve done the one thing I said I’d never do and bought a Chinese car, and I’m happy with it!
So went on the hunt for something completely different, either full EV or Hybrid and I know they don’t get much love here! But kept getting pulled back to Chinese! So a few saloons I fancied were the BYD Seal (lovely car!!! Interiors very nice!!) Tesla M3 dual motor (bland inside for me, couldn’t live with it but they’re cracking cars) and 3 series BMW. Then SUV’s (never owned one before) Considered the new Jaecoo J8 (just a bit out of budget) J7 Black edition (test drive the j7 luxury but wasn’t fussed on that interior) Cherry Tiggo 9, a few Omoda’s, Leapmotor B10 and had a look at the Tesla model Y, really liked this from the outside but again interior.
After a couple test drives I settled on the Omoda 9. I was after a black one but we test drove a white one first, the white paint has a nice metallic sparkle shimmer to it, test drive another in black but decided on white. Plus there was a 16 week wait for the black one, they just had a white one delivered and I had the keys a few days later.
As an overall package I can’t really fault this, my only real gripe is the drivers aids which can be a little intrusive but I switch these off on any long drives, school run our popping other shops I just leave them on and they’re no real problem.
It feels like a big car to drive! And when I first bought it I kept looking back thinking f
k me that’s massive and be a nightmare to park, but I’ve got used to it. I think It’s only around 6 inches wider/longer than the saab but sit much higher up, loads more interior space so feels huge at first but I got used to it soon enough.Handling…come back to that!
Performance is great, 450bhp & 516ft/lbs 0-60 in 4.9s so plenty of shove and much quicker than the saab (or even my older grey saloon which was rapid), very linear power delivery (it’s nice) Has 6 different driving modes, eco, normal, sport, snow, sand & off road. And either EV or switch to HEV. Usually just keep it in EV with eco around town and normal/sports on the bypass/mway. Sand and off road starts the engine so HEV.
Onto the hybrid system the engine doesn’t drive any wheels it’s just a generator for the electric motors. You can keep it in initial mode so only uses the electric motors, if the battery drops below 20% then it engages the engine to charge the battery, or Smart mode which does everything for you and charges as and when, or forced mode and this just charges the battery back to 80% and keeps it around there (I think that’s right anyway still finding new stuff out about it!)
Obviously full of tech & toys and these feel like a steep learning curve coming from a 21 year old saab! Infotainment systems not too bad once you get used to it, it does have 3 physical knobs for fan speed, temp & driver mode plus AC has a button. So not everything is controlled with the screen. A couple things could be easier to access though (just have to get used to it) 540 degree camera which is excellent.
Economy/range. It’s 93 electric only range, I’d say it’s pretty accurate. A full tank of fuel plus full charge gets around 700 miles. Mega cheap to run. I stuck 40 quid in here last week and the range went to 340ish miles, saab used to cost £65 and got 260 miles. Sports mode & booting it that eats the battery! And AC or especially pre warming/cooling the car with the app (the apps pretty basic but does everything I need) Driving eco/normal it’s pretty economical.
Interior. Really happy with it, nice place to sit. They’ve nicked a load from Mercedes!!! Has all the toys and creature comforts you need but the UK cars don’t come with massage seats which is a shame, the Jaecoo 8 & Tiggo 9 (same cars more or less) do come with it. Heated steering wheel & electic adjustable, electric/heated/vented seats, rear seat back can be raised or lowered slightly, loads of soft leather…. “leather” (it’s pleather…) bits. Wireless phone charging. Tons of storage. Very comfy to drive. Yeah no issues.
Handing. Yeah not great
Day to day and just driving normally there no issues, it’s no Mx5 though it’ll tell you that much. I think there’s electrically adaptive suspension on here?? Maybe they can sort something there and it forms it up a little in sport mode, same with the steering, it’s incredibly light but I’ve got used to it, sports mode firms this up a bit but I can’t tell much difference.Practicality it’s a spacious cabin, plenty of storage, boots pretty big, the 9-3 was slightly longer but it’s big enough for us.
So yeah! I’ve done the one thing I said I’d never do and bought a Chinese car, and I’m happy with it!
Does this need to be plugged in? Charging is an issue for me, otherwise I'd be more inclined towards an EV. I currently have a full hybrid Duster, which is powered/charged by the engine and I like it. This sounds more like a Range Extender jobbie, so just wondered if it can be treated like a "normal" car and self charge?
RoadToad84 said:
Does this need to be plugged in? Charging is an issue for me, otherwise I'd be more inclined towards an EV. I currently have a full hybrid Duster, which is powered/charged by the engine and I like it. This sounds more like a Range Extender jobbie, so just wondered if it can be treated like a "normal" car and self charge?
No mate but I plug mine in twice a week that’s enough for the mileage I do. You can just run it with the engine and leave it in smart mode if you don’t have access to a charger and it charges it for you. It’s actually cheaper to do this vs public charging (unless you can charge at home then it’s very cheap to run) I’ve only driven in HEV for around 60ish miles the rest are in EV.Forgot to mention it’s very quiet inside aswel, double glazed front windows. Nice to drive in peace for a change until the little one gets in and wants Taylor Swift blasting!
Chris_i8 said:
I detailed one of these a few months back - more impressed by it than I thought I would be, especially the interior.
I can see why they, Jaecoo etc sell so many.
Enjoy!
Chris
Yeah the interiors nice tbf. Nice change from a massive tablet in the middle of the dash, kinda flows to the drivers side. I’ll post some pics when it’s clean. Other countries get different colour interiors, I think red, white & grey we only get black here. I can see why they, Jaecoo etc sell so many.
Enjoy!
Chris
Few more things on here I forgot about, full pan roof & sun roof, auto parking (still don’t fully trust it but does work) fancy adjustable light show unlocking & locking the car and ambient lighting throughout, wing mirrors have Omoda lit on the floor when you open it, light up door sills, adaptive cruise control, easy access/exit drivers seat (really handy in a car park) Sill finding stuff out on it
Fairly large 34kwh battery for the 93 mile electric range. I’m just using a 3 pin charger so takes around 15 hours from 20-100% I think a wall box will go it in 5-6 hours but can’t justify the costs with the mileage I do. Around £1.5k for me. So just fitted an outside socket.
The engine does indeed drive the wheels in certain modes. For full power you need to be in offroad mode which has the motor running continuously.
It's all very clever.
Eco mode is single electric motor. Sports is using double motor etc.
We use eco for daily drive but annoyingly the pedal feel is too slow.
The boot is large but the sloped rear hatch makes it less useable.
A fantastic car by any means. I find the handling fine for a 2300kg car. You're never going to drive it like a sports car are you?
We had a towbar fitted. Large trailer. Not a caravan and didn't notice much elec range drop at all. Trailer is probably around 1000kg
It's all very clever.
Eco mode is single electric motor. Sports is using double motor etc.
We use eco for daily drive but annoyingly the pedal feel is too slow.
The boot is large but the sloped rear hatch makes it less useable.
A fantastic car by any means. I find the handling fine for a 2300kg car. You're never going to drive it like a sports car are you?
We had a towbar fitted. Large trailer. Not a caravan and didn't notice much elec range drop at all. Trailer is probably around 1000kg
Djtemeka said:
The engine does indeed drive the wheels in certain modes. For full power you need to be in offroad mode which has the motor running continuously.
It's all very clever.
Eco mode is single electric motor. Sports is using double motor etc.
We use eco for daily drive but annoyingly the pedal feel is too slow.
The boot is large but the sloped rear hatch makes it less useable.
A fantastic car by any means. I find the handling fine for a 2300kg car. You're never going to drive it like a sports car are you?
We had a towbar fitted. Large trailer. Not a caravan and didn't notice much elec range drop at all. Trailer is probably around 1000kg
Didn’t know that It's all very clever.
Eco mode is single electric motor. Sports is using double motor etc.
We use eco for daily drive but annoyingly the pedal feel is too slow.
The boot is large but the sloped rear hatch makes it less useable.
A fantastic car by any means. I find the handling fine for a 2300kg car. You're never going to drive it like a sports car are you?
We had a towbar fitted. Large trailer. Not a caravan and didn't notice much elec range drop at all. Trailer is probably around 1000kg
Did you notice any performance increase in off road vs sports?
Yes felt the same in eco mode but mainly pulling off, it’s a half second delay but on the move it’s ok.
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