Jaecoo 7 review

If you’re seriously considering buying a Jaecoo 7, then in short, there’s nothing to worry about here. The 7 is easy to drive, with no major vices. As you were. Onto the Interior tab for you.

But if you’re having a read out of sheer curiosity, there are some points of interest.

The 7 has a grown-up ride and solid body control most of the time, but it doesn’t deal especially well with the sort of nasty, sharp intrusions urban motoring is littered with. Low-speed pothole and speed bump impacts are a little jarring. Since this car is about as sporty as a crossword puzzle, the Euro-spec damping could do with being softening off just a smidge to deal with that bugbear.

Otherwise, it’s a good town car. The DCT gearbox in the regular petrol version gets along fine with the engine. It keeps up with a squirt of throttle when you eye a tempting gap merging into a roundabout. The regen effect in the hybrid (choose from three settings in the touchscreen) doesn’t fizz and judder underfoot. You’ll discover precious little difference between Eco, Normal and Sport mode, so there’s at least one mega-screen sub menu you can rule out visiting. Why the Mode selector dial has been treated to so much space on the centre console is anyone’s guess. We’d prefer an extra cupholder. Or some climate controls…

On the motorway, we found the vague steering needed more managing around the straightahead than rivals which sit more rock-steady.

Is it fast?

No. The regular petrol one only creates 145 horsepower and takes more than ten seconds to haul itself from 0-62mph. If you’ve got time on your hands and don’t like the look of the weather, there’s a four-wheel drive version which is even slower.

Obviously you haven’t landed in a Jaecoo in search of splendiferous dynamics. Because small crossover SUVs are not fun machines. Trying to find giggly handling in this class of Konas, Jukes, Stonics, GLAs, Q3s, Vitaras, ZSs and so on (and on and on) is like expecting laugh-a-minute one-liners from the shipping forecast. The only small SUV that’s remotely memorable to drive is a Ford Puma. The end.

Is it efficient?

The 1.6-litre turbo petrol is nothing remarkable, averaging late 30s to the gallon in our hands. But the plug-in hybrid is impressive, covering 50 miles of real-world driving with the engine asleep. When the battery gets low, it does a convincing impression of a series hybrid (like a Toyota) to keep enough charge in the battery that it will always assist, instead of becoming a useless dead weight.

It’s hardly peppy when both power sources join forces, but 200 horsepower is enough to keep the 7 competitive in traffic and the handover from electric to petrol is impressively smooth. So, anyone who likes to drive their German-badged mini-G Wagen assertively won’t be interested. But nice people might be.