modocrat
Well-known member
Nǐ hǎo.
A friend was buying a demo and asked if I would fly to JHB to have a look at it for him and drive it back. I didn't have anything constructive planned for Friday, ok maybe I did have to go to work but YOLO 🤣
Landed in cold and wet Jozi at 7:35am. Dealer picked me up and took me to their weird dealership located inside The Glen shopping mall, this was a first for me. We try new things everyday
The dealer had allegedly filled R600 worth of juice and gave it an overnight charge. Fuel range was 389km and battery was at 92km. I took the car for a quick drive to ensure all was in order before taking delivery. I took delivery and stopped at the Engen about 1-2km away to connect my devices etc. I wanted to do this before leaving the dealer but the salesman had to walk in the rain to the boom to let me out of the shopping mall
I departed Bassonia with 82km battery range (the test drive was probably only 3km) and headed to Rosebank/Parkwood for breakfast.
Damn Waze took me through some real dodgy areas.
I drove all the way in EV mode, was quite strange not to hear any engine noise. I departed JHB and switched between EV and HEV modes. The car was set to Eco mode all the way.
I got to De Heok Toll Plaza which is +/- 80km from Rosebank and the range was sitting at 333km for fuel and 23km for battery. Fair. I then went full HEV mode.
I was still getting to know the car (mostly the huge iPad) so I wasn't really planting my right foot.
I was monitoring the fuel range and had decided that I will make a fuel stop in Harrismith. It poured really hard so I kept it between 130-140km/h. The 2WD handled the wet roads well and at no point did it feel out of place.
I thought the batteries would charge while in HEV mode but that didn't happen. I called the dealer to confirm and apparently its normal as its a PHEV. The fuel range had dropped significantly and was dropping with every km travelled 😕
About 10km from Harrismith the range of 60km disappeared and it only said, "fuel low - fill up", F*&k me I thought.
I got to Harrismith with an empty-ish fuel tank after only travelling 280km. This doesn't look good. (333km range at De Hoek Plaza). I topped up with around 35lt of fuel, the range jumped up to 728km, yay!
The rain got worse so I took it easy... but the range kept dropping.. At this point I really missed my not-so-planet-friendly-diesel-burning Audi Q5.
I arrived at Marianhill toll Plaza and flicked it into sport mode to enjoy the 255kw of power. Being a PHEV, its very quick and also handled decently with the 19" wheels. I got to my destination some 300km later with a fuel range of..... wait for it..... 300km (I left Harrismith with 728km). WTAF?!
Issues I experienced with the Jaecoo J7:
Zàijiàn.
A friend was buying a demo and asked if I would fly to JHB to have a look at it for him and drive it back. I didn't have anything constructive planned for Friday, ok maybe I did have to go to work but YOLO 🤣
Landed in cold and wet Jozi at 7:35am. Dealer picked me up and took me to their weird dealership located inside The Glen shopping mall, this was a first for me. We try new things everyday
The dealer had allegedly filled R600 worth of juice and gave it an overnight charge. Fuel range was 389km and battery was at 92km. I took the car for a quick drive to ensure all was in order before taking delivery. I took delivery and stopped at the Engen about 1-2km away to connect my devices etc. I wanted to do this before leaving the dealer but the salesman had to walk in the rain to the boom to let me out of the shopping mall
I departed Bassonia with 82km battery range (the test drive was probably only 3km) and headed to Rosebank/Parkwood for breakfast.
Damn Waze took me through some real dodgy areas.
I drove all the way in EV mode, was quite strange not to hear any engine noise. I departed JHB and switched between EV and HEV modes. The car was set to Eco mode all the way.
I got to De Heok Toll Plaza which is +/- 80km from Rosebank and the range was sitting at 333km for fuel and 23km for battery. Fair. I then went full HEV mode.
I was still getting to know the car (mostly the huge iPad) so I wasn't really planting my right foot.
I was monitoring the fuel range and had decided that I will make a fuel stop in Harrismith. It poured really hard so I kept it between 130-140km/h. The 2WD handled the wet roads well and at no point did it feel out of place.
I thought the batteries would charge while in HEV mode but that didn't happen. I called the dealer to confirm and apparently its normal as its a PHEV. The fuel range had dropped significantly and was dropping with every km travelled 😕
About 10km from Harrismith the range of 60km disappeared and it only said, "fuel low - fill up", F*&k me I thought.
I got to Harrismith with an empty-ish fuel tank after only travelling 280km. This doesn't look good. (333km range at De Hoek Plaza). I topped up with around 35lt of fuel, the range jumped up to 728km, yay!
The rain got worse so I took it easy... but the range kept dropping.. At this point I really missed my not-so-planet-friendly-diesel-burning Audi Q5.
I arrived at Marianhill toll Plaza and flicked it into sport mode to enjoy the 255kw of power. Being a PHEV, its very quick and also handled decently with the 19" wheels. I got to my destination some 300km later with a fuel range of..... wait for it..... 300km (I left Harrismith with 728km). WTAF?!
Issues I experienced with the Jaecoo J7:
- I could not select a new destination on Waze while driving. My secondary device is an Android which I use for Waze/Maps etc. while on the road. I had to disconnect the phone from the car, select my new destination on Waze and reconnect my phone. The bluetooth on my (silly Android) phone kept re-enabling and reconnecting to the car during this process which brought out quite a bit of profanities.
- Sony speakers were kak, I had the volume at max but it was still soft.
- I unintentionally pressed a button on the steering wheel and I think the lane prevention kak got activated. It steered the car on the bends for me until I figured out (took me a while) how to turn it off. Not cool!
- The heated seats kept going back to level one. No Jaecoo, my arse was not cooking, it was 12 degrees outside!
- The fuel range; it actually gave me anxiety.
- When approaching a sudden traffic jam, I kept unlocking the car instead of pressing the hazards as the buttons are in the same line - Pic below.
- The gear selector doesn't go straight from R to D or vice versa. It goes into neutral first and takes a few clicks to select the gear you want, very annoying!
- I NEED BUTTONS, not a damn TV screen on the dash.
Zàijiàn.
