The Geely Jia Ji Is An MPV In An SUV World

I welcome everybody I've got a really good treat for you today this is the brand-new Gigli Joe gee that would be Julie's first MPV and China's first hybrid MPV now most of you will know Julia's the owners of Volvo and Lotus among other brands but in addition to pumping millions of dollars into foreign companies they also stay busy making their own cars in this case this is their first MPV and what I'm interested in finding out is was Gigli correct and investing in an MPV when the npv market is headed downhill or should they have just built another coupe SUV let's find out according to Julie's website their intention with the Jaji was to abandon the so called box on wheels design aesthetic in favor of a more flowing design language that they referred to as accelerating through time now I have no idea what accelerating through time is supposed to look like but the results aren't half-bad I wouldn't call it a revolution in MPV design but the overall look is handsome if a bit traditional let's start with the outside shall we I find that a lot of Julie's front-end design is pretty generic around 2014 they hired a very famous designer Peter Horbury from Volvo actually to give them a whole revamp but the results were frankly a little bit boring however this latest addition is very handsome if you ask me in particular this silver ELINT that runs the width of the front end I think really adds something on top of the normal you know grille hole here it gives it a sense of width and presence that other models do not have the JA G is actually a pretty great place to spend time I recently rode in a Mercedes Benz that was at least four times the price and I have to say that in terms of style and quality the difference wasn't as big as you might expect the screens and the Jaji are easy to use and well placed and the material quality especially in this one with this nice brown interior we're generally surprisingly good now that we're inside let's have a little bit of a look at the interior Julie describes their design as space time inspired the result is sweeping flowing lines across this multi-layered dashboard here in particular I like that they have this silver element here that spreads across the width of the dashboard and mirrors the same element on the front end you'll also notice if you look closely some elements such as here on the top or on the overhead lighting area here the door speakers they have a distinct Chinese style of design that I think is actually pretty wonderful may chinese companies go out of their way to avoid looking like a Chinese car I think that Julie's been able to combine international design aesthetics with a unique Chinese style very successfully now the true mark of excellence when it comes to an MPV interior is not so much how it makes you feel like a time-traveling fighter pilot but rather practicality and in that respect the Jaji is also very good you can see from the room the indoor seating here there are plenty of storage areas here here there's the center armrest as well and then underneath the center armrest there's copious room to put things like phones bags and other stuff the same is true for the rear seating as well which makes sense because the target market for this MPV is small families buyers can also choose from either a 6 or 7 seat configuration with 3 seating options 2 + 2 + 2 2 + 2 + 3 or 2 + 3 + 2 every seat and the jeely GOG is comfortable but I'm a particular fan of the second row because they have an incredible amount of angle oh yeah that's good as a mid-sized MPV you might expect the Joji to have decent space in the rear but frankly it doesn't I'm gonna put this small bag to give you an idea but apart from that there's not a whole lot you can do with it if you go grocery shopping I hope you only brought three kids because one of these seats is gonna need to lay down perhaps the biggest selling point however is the availability of Julie's 360 degrees security identification zone advanced driving assistant technologies that give the GOG level two semi autonomous driving the system bundles a whole bunch of safety technology including intelligent cruise control adaptive cruise control lane keep assist forward collision warning autonomous emergency braking a rear cross traffic alert rear collision warning blind spot detection lane change assistant and speed limit identification the jazzy comes with a range of small displacement engines including both mild hybrid and plug-in hybrid configurations making it the first hybrid MPV available in China the entry-level Joji makes do with a 1.5 liter turbo motor made it exclusively to a manual transmission while those of more means cannot for a 1.8 liter tgd i've four-cylinder with a six-speed automatic today we are driving the 1.5 liter mild hybrid which is like the range-topping 1.5 liter plug-in hybrid you attach to a 7-speed dual-clutch transmission I would have loved to have get my hands gotten my hands on the pH IV version in order to test its 258 combined HP and claimed 56 kilometer on electric range alas have to make do with the mild hybrid version and it's 190 horsepower and 300 millimeters of torque I have a feeling that most buyers will opt for either the 1.8 liter 4-cylinder or this M HEV so this is actually a good look at what the average consumer will experience I've been driving the JA G in the mountains of Ningbo a city about three hours south of Shanghai for the past couple of days and it's an MPV when I rather be driving even a civic yes but it handles itself pretty well on the mountain roads I wouldn't describe it as possible but the steering is pretty direct if obviously very numb when you're driving in mountain roads like this these a pillars that are about the size of you know Eastern Europe are kind of a problem because you can't see around the corners but other than that honestly it's it's better than say you know your average SUV in terms of handling the powertrain which I mentioned earlier is the Volvo 3 cylinder I gotta say I've never driven it in a Volvo application and maybe on a Volvo platform with mower sound deadening and a little bit more refinement it's better but frankly it comes off here as a bit unrefined a little bit rough when you accelerate it's not particularly smooth particularly in the sport mode there is both comfort normal and sport settings the owner of the car insists that he likes to drive into the sports setting but that is not my experience the sports setting I found really only adjusts the throttle mapping and it's it's just touchy it doesn't feel particularly good I like the comfort setting because it lets you once you exit the corners a little bit more smoothly as opposed to the sport you know it's an MPV so the sports settings not going to be perfect so let us return to the original thesis statement for this review would Gigli have been better off spending their money building an SUV instead of an MPV honestly I think the answer is yes even a great MPV like this with efficiency affordability and good looks just isn't going to be enough to break through that hard crust of SLV SUV market the suggested retail price for this jelly GOG including all of the amazing safety features the big screens and the hybrid powertrain is 15,000 euros

Channel: Wheelsboy

Views: 93,115

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Id: gCxyGNk37hI

Length: 9min 25sec (565 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 22 2020