Great News

Price Wall Crashes - 1/12/2009

4WD - 01 December, 2009 - By Peter Barwell

THE most amazing thing about Great Wall's new 4WD is the price. At a drive-away $23,990 it sends a powerful message to cash-strapped families looking to update the family bus.

That gets you a goodlooking vehicle with leather upholstery and climatecontrolled airconditioning. The Chinese-built and badged five-seat compact offroader sits on the same chassis and shares the same powertrain as the recently released V240 ute.

It's powered by a 2.4 litre Mitsubishi four-cylinder engine and comes with a fivespeed manual only at this stage. It's even got low-range fourwheel drive so you can take it off-road with confidence. The ride is old school, harsh and jiggly like 4WDs used to be, but that's only on rougher roads.

What the X240, known as the Hover in its home country, misses out on is the arsenal of safety gear that has become par for the course these days - things like six airbags and electronic stability control.

The ute scored only two stars in crash tests. This vehicle does, however, score two airbags for the driver and front passenger, as well as ABS anti-lock brakes with brake force distribution.

Produced under licence, the 2.4 litre four is good for 100kW of power and 200Nm of torque between 2500 and 3000 revs. It's not going to set the world on fire, but does a reasonable job of moving the wagon's 1830kg bulk.

Fuel economy is rated at 10.4 litres/100km, but could go well over this figure if you flog it. It looks good and goes well enough but, like the ute, its main appeal is the price.

The 4WD system is a traditional part-time system and cannot be engaged on dry bitumen. The addition of low-range gearing is a bonus but, with only 175mm of ground clearance, its off-road exploits are going to be limited. High range can be selected on the fly and it comes with a fullsized spare.

As well as leather and air, you get a power-operated driver's seat, rear parking sensors and an eight-speaker CD/MP3 sound system with a USB port. Seventeen-inch alloys are also fitted. Colours available are white, black, silver and red, but anything except white adds $400 to the price.

The interior of the car will be finished in black, unlike the vehicle pictured. A sunroof is a $1000 option. The X240 is backed by a three-year/100,000km warranty, with 24-hour roadside assistance.