Driving the new Chery Tiggo 7 Pro SUV today. Chery’s initial arrival here under an importer was marred by an asbestos recall and poor safety scores and it eventually left our market. However, after an absence of eight years it relaunched late last year as a factory backed franchise with the small Chery Omoda 5 SUV. The Chery Tiggo 7 Pro, and goodness knows where they got that name from, is marginally bigger to the Omoda 5. Three models – 1.6-litre turbo seven-speed automatic – the Urban and Elite, both front drive, and in the Ultimate in all-wheel- drive. In a highly competitive SUV market, all three have already been discounted – the Urban by $3,000 to $36,990 drive-away, the Elite and Ultimate models receiving a $2,000 factory bonus – $39,990 and $43,990 drive-away respectively. The Tiggo Pro 7 achieved a five-star ANCAP safety rating and comes with a seven-year/ unlimited km warranty, very well supported with low service costs of $840 over three years. And it’s stacked with 18 active drive assist features and a load of comfort and convenience equipment – I tested both the front drive Elite and all-wheel drive Ultimate. Despite their outstanding value the drive experience simply disappointing. Details next segment.

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