Chery Tiggo 7 review

A sub-£30k, C-segment SUV is never going to be a byword for handling nous, nor a natural port for enthusiasts to dock in. Little surprise then that the Tiggo 7 is best summed up as ‘okay’ in the driving department.

But there are some crucial, if subtle steps forward from its Jaecoo and Omoda cousins to show that the Chinese rate of iteration and improvement feels alive and well. For starters, its rich platter of drive assist systems don’t beep, bong or buzz too intrusively. They’re awake on the road – sure – but their volume has been dimmed. Useful when the distraction alert gubbins are especially hyper and couldn’t seem to care less if your wandering eyes are typically caused by the Tiggo itself. See the next tab for more details…

Is it comfortable?

Overall it drives inoffensively. Its damping is pretty supple, but can take a while to settle after repeated bumps – nothing that’s likely to irk too much, but a sign that further work at tying this car down on rubbish British roads would be welcome. It turns into corners neatly enough, though body roll in quicker bends or through roundabouts can feel a touch OTT as a passenger when you’re not naturally bracing yourself like the driver will be. It lacks several layers of sophistication, but Chery’s plan to build a UK R&D centre shows it means business for honing this sort of thing. And rival Euro cars on their sportier suspension setups or larger alloy wheel options can also feel foxed by a bumpy B-road.

There are three drive modes, accessed via a central dial or via the touchscreen, and you can even start fiddling with steering response and brake feel like it’s an M3. It feels safe to surmise most customers won’t bother – the car is naturally at its most agreeable in Normal. 

Which engine should I have?

Probably the hybrid. The base petrol car ain’t terrible, it’s just uninspiring, its 145bhp output good on paper but the delivery not up to muster when you’ve loaded the car up and need to grab a brisk overtake. The seven-speed DCT ‘box is relatively smart in its shifts, but lacks paddles and a manual mode and could do with both – there’s no kickdown beneath the throttle, curiously, so you’re always at the mercy of the Tiggo’s own mapping without much influence of your own. Our drive was too brief to really interrogate fuel economy claims, but a 32.7mpg claim looks pretty limp nowadays. Its low pricing suddenly appears to be doing a lot of heavy lifting.

The Super Hybrid might be overselling itself a tad, but it does feel a leap on from the pure petrol. A different, 1.5-litre petrol engine pairs with an e-motor and 18.4kWh battery for a 201bhp peak and a claimed 256.8mpg; of more relevance are its 56 miles of electric-only running and promised 745-mile total range. You can plug it in and charge at modest speeds or simply leave the powertrain to top up the battery of its own accord, as a lot of users might.

It's much sprightlier than the petrol and demonstrably more refined, our short drive incurring very little use of the engine. Just avoid Sport mode – it adds a lot of vigour to the throttle response and can elicit a surprising amount of wheelspin. Should it happen mid-corner, the traction control lunges in with the bluster of a nightclub bouncer, upsetting the calm as the car suffers an electronics-induced wobble. Stick to Normal, drive it sedately and all should be well.