Auto tested more than 80 cars in 2024. As is tradition, we re-publish our twelve favourite tests of the year as our Best Tests daily through December. Then we present three Auto Special Awards in Best EV, Best Bakkie and Performance car of the year 2024. And then we choose the Top 3 Best Tests, before we announce Best Test 2024 on 1 January 2025. So come back for your daily Auto entertainment everyday through your holidays!
Auto Best Tests 2024 #4: Jetour X70 Plus
BEST TEST ’24 #4: No-nonsense Jetour a lot of car for the money
Chinese cars are a compromise, right? In this case, Jetour is a completely unknown brand. But it is run locally by some well-known industry heavy hitters and is a deadly serious effort. China cars are also copycat cars in some form or another. Which the Jetour, refreshingly, isn’t. In fact, this X70 Plus is the only Chinese car we’ve tested that was not glaringly Chinese. So, on those two, it gets off the compromise hook.
Right up front, it’s not perfect, and it does have compromises. But the Jetour X70 Plus is one of those cars that is so good elsewhere, and its faults being of the sort you will quite soon understand and get on with, that they really do not matter in the end. The point of this car is that it’s a fully specced—and believe us, it is specced to the moon—family-sized SUV that sells from four hundred and fifty grand.
Yet you look at it, and it kind of shouts executive enough to make you wonder. Is it a Beemer? Or is it an Audi? And hop aboard, and it has quite a Benz feel about it. Sure, some quality aspects won’t quite match up, and you really need to get to understand what it’s trying to tell you via its wholly inadequate Mandarin-English written communication. But for half, and in some cases even a third or more of the price of the pretenders, who gives a damn? So yes. It’s still a bit of a compromise.
Jetour is China’s fastest-growing car brand.
Among the fastest-growing Chinese SUV brands in the local market, Jetour, Jet for speed and success, and Tour, symbolising freedom and adventure, is plain and simple here to deliver South African motorists an acceptable and most affordable luxury SUV alternative. Jetour understands that the South African consumer has been pressed to adjust from the premium brands to alternative offerings. And it makes no bones about it, does not try to be something else. And we like that.
So, getting down to nuts and bolts and rows of seats, let’s start with the fact that the X70 Plus is a seven-passenger vehicle. Just in case. It’s also a spacious, modern and elegant, yet understated. Makes you think, is it European?
Stepping aboard, material quality, fit, and finish are surprisingly good too. It packs great tech and a user-friendly, if button and knob-deficient, infotainment system with advanced tech. The upside on that, however, are Jetour’s previous-generation Mercedes-like double touch pad multifunction steering controls. They work splendidly. Only trouble is the car fails to communicate with the driver, which is surprising considering the rest of that Jetour attention to detail.
Mandarin-English must be fixed
See, the Jetour suffers from the worst bout of Mandarin-English we have ever come across. For instance, we could not initially find the vehicle range on the onboard computer. Until we figured that the number next to ‘Power Trip’ was diminishing in line with what the range should be.
Power Trip? Goodness gracious! Why not Potty Train or Potato Salad? Really, if you are selling a car to an English market, get that damn English right. Can it be that difficult? Anyway, Mandarin-English is still a problem on just about all Chinese cars, although it is improving on some of them.
We challenge Jetour to find someone who understands technical motoring English, who can go through all your prompts and make them say what us Saffers and the rest of the not too insignificant English-speaking world will actually understand. Do that once, properly, and you will have a great advantage.
Jetour has it all, and more
For the rest, the X70 Plus Deluxe’s premium faux leather-clad cabin has it all, and more, under that panoramic glass sunroof. ‘Unmatched safety’ is another Jetour chirp. Impressive, but once again, flawed.
X70 Plus packs everything from lane change and keeping and rear cross traffic to blind spot assistants. Add advanced keyless entry, tyre pressure monitoring, a rear parking camera, and much more. All very good. But if I don’t want to drive with all of those nannies on, I expect to turn it off by touching one button and for it to stay off.
Sadly, this car’s noisy, meddlesome, woke lane change system, together with one or two other niggling and wholly unnecessary warnings and reminders, will prove a deal breaker to some. And this is once again an easy one to engineer out. Just give me that one, simple button to put it all off. When I want it off!
Jetour is refreshingly different, likeable
For the rest, the Jetour X70 Plus is a refreshingly original and likeable motorcar. It doesn’t particularly shine anywhere beyond its bang-for-buck luxury. Steering is a tad wooden, but the ride impressed. Even if road holding and handling could be blamed for feeling a little distant. Performance is on the better side of average and would be significantly quicker if only it could launch better. Economy, while perhaps a little ambitious by its claims, is still pretty good too. All courtesy of a handy little 115 kW 230 Nm turbo 1500 four-pot driving a smooth-shifting six-speed double-clutch auto box turning the front axle.
This Jetour X70 Plus Deluxe sells for R484K. Don’t forget, the range starts with the Momentum at R454K. It comes with a 5-year, 150,000 km warranty on the car and a million clicks on the engine for the first owner. And a year and 60,000 km service plan. It has all you will ever need from a luxury family SUV, looks good enough to park next to an X3, GLC, or Q5 in the school parking lot, and feel far better about the saving you made than the premium the drivers of those cars be scratching their heads about what you settled for this quite unique vehicle.
Yes, it has its issues. But this was also the first Jetour we’d ever seen. Now let’s see if they go back and fix the two little glitches we suggest. That done, the X70 Plus is a definite no-brainer. Because as it is, it’s almost one already.
– Michele Lupini
ROAD TESTED: Jetour X70 Plus 1.5T Deluxe
Engine:115 kW 230 Nm 1.5-litre turbo petrol I4
Drive: Double Clutch Automatic FWD
TESTED:
0-60 km/h: 4.28 sec
0-100 km/h: 9.78 sec
0-120 km/h: 13.38 sec
0-160 km/h: 25.53 sec
400m: 16.8 sec @ 135 km/h
80-120 km/h: 6.90 sec
120-160 km/h: 12.16 sec
CLAIMED:
VMax: 180 km/h
Fuel: 7.8 l/100 km
CO2: 179 g/km
Range: 730 km
Warranty/Service: 5y 150K/1y 60 K km
LIST PRICE: R484K
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