You can’t get much these days when it comes to cars for under $50,000, so to see the new Jaecoo J7 come in at the price it has with this level of standard equipment is genuinely surprising. But, is it any good? Paul Maric tests out the 2025 Jaecoo J7 Track.
Hardness tester, noise and lane keeping results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 01:21
Interior: 03:07
Infotainment: 04:56
Safety Tech: 06:35
Practicality: 07:10
On the Road: 10:11
Driver aids: 16:27
Performance: 17:23
Verdict: 19:16
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
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#jaecoo #j7 #review
Hardness tester, noise and lane keeping results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 01:21
Interior: 03:07
Infotainment: 04:56
Safety Tech: 06:35
Practicality: 07:10
On the Road: 10:11
Driver aids: 16:27
Performance: 17:23
Verdict: 19:16
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1
You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.
Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!
Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!
CarExpert:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au
Paul Maric:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric
#jaecoo #j7 #review
Category
🚗
MotorTranscript
00:00Here we go.
00:09Just think of the price for a second there.
00:11Under $40,000 drive away, and this is what you have.
00:15It is genuinely remarkable how much value there is in this car.
00:19G'day, I'm Paul.
00:19There is an explosion of Chinese cars coming to Australia,
00:23and in the most popular segments as well, like the mid-sized SUV segment,
00:27one of the latest entrants is the Jaycoo J7.
00:31We drove the plug-in hybrid version of this recently,
00:341,200 Ks across part of South Africa,
00:36and I was pretty impressed with the fuel economy.
00:38Now, this, on the other hand, is the internal combustion version.
00:42The top spec, it's called the J7 track, is priced from $37,990 drive away,
00:47which is incredible value for money.
00:49If that is too expensive, the whole range kicks off with the core version,
00:52priced at $34,990 drive away.
00:54There's an all-wheel drive version of this coming as well,
00:56which we haven't driven yet, so this is just the front-wheel drive.
00:59For those that don't know, because it is a little bit confusing,
01:01Jaycoo sits under the Cherry umbrella,
01:03and in markets like South Africa,
01:05Cherry is basically the entry-level stuff,
01:08then it steps up to a motor,
01:09and then you have Jaycoo as well, but all under the Cherry tree.
01:13Now, today, we are going to do a detailed review of this,
01:15so if you do want to skip ahead to other parts of this review,
01:17you can use the time codes that are on the screen,
01:18or if you're on YouTube, you can scroll down and use the chapters below.
01:21Now, let's talk about design.
01:23I think the Chinese design has really evolved.
01:27If you look at the Cherry Emoto 5 that we have here in Australia,
01:30it kind of feels like the previous generation of Chinese design.
01:33This, on the other hand, I mean, you could replace this brand with Audi, for example,
01:38and you would just assume this is a premium German car.
01:40It just looks so good here in person.
01:42You can see they've put a lot of effort into giving it a bit of character on the road
01:46and just not making it look pedestrian or like everything else out there.
01:49So, LED headlights, you've got the running light up the top there,
01:52the actual headlight cluster down below.
01:55Big grille here.
01:56Now, around the side here, you've got yourself a set of, what brand is that?
02:00Cooper tyres, and that is sitting on an 18-inch alloy wheel.
02:04Machine finish on the outside there with a piano black in the centre,
02:07some wheel arch guards there as well.
02:09Got a 360 camera here on the top spec with an indicator built into there,
02:13and then you've got this sort of two-tone set up,
02:15so body colour and then the black through this middle section.
02:18And roof rails, these door handles, they pop out when the vehicle unlocks
02:22and slide back in when it locks or you drive off,
02:24so it has a nice sort of sleek look down the side there as you go.
02:28And by the way, in terms of the dimensions, four and a half metres long,
02:30so around Havill H6 size, a little shorter than something like a RAV4,
02:35so it gives you a bit of an idea of how big it is.
02:37Come right to the back with me.
02:39Now, around the back, JQ, behind that little plate just there.
02:43J7 for the branding.
02:44Tucked in under here is the wiper for the rear window
02:48and a brake light integrated into there.
02:50The rear of the car actually just looks really quite nice and sophisticated
02:53with that sort of LED light that stretches along the top there.
02:56Fake exhaust outlets, but quite a sort of decent design.
02:59So let me know what you reckon in the comments section below.
03:01Do you like the look of this?
03:02Do you think this is kind of turning the corner for Chinese design?
03:06Let me know what you reckon down there.
03:07Okay, so we are inside the JQ J7.
03:10That's what the key looks like.
03:11You've got unlock, boot, lock, remote start, JQ on the back there.
03:18It's a proximity sensing key.
03:20So as you approach the car, the door handles pop out.
03:23So that's how that works.
03:24And then once you're inside, you've got a push button start at the top here.
03:27Okay, so just think of the price for a second there.
03:31Under $40,000 drive away, and this is what you have.
03:34It is genuinely remarkable how much value there is in this car.
03:38And, you know, I just am staggered that some manufacturers still try and get away with
03:43charging this extraordinary amount of money for cars that are so outdated.
03:47Whereas this, this just feels like you have kind of just landed on the jackpot if you buy
03:52it and you're getting this type of interior.
03:54So I think the Chinese are really good at that.
03:57It is all about perception.
03:58When you sit inside the car, you do feel like you're getting something that's worth double the price.
04:02So excellent job on that.
04:04How does it all sort of feel, though, as you start poking around?
04:08Well, it's fairly soft up the top there.
04:10This stuff here is soft too.
04:12Soft in the centre and soft on the doors as well.
04:15It really doesn't feel like they've cheapened out anywhere in here.
04:19It feels like they've kept with that consistent level of quality and that premium sort of fit
04:23and finish.
04:23So from that point of view, it's all good.
04:26How soft are the surfaces?
04:27We've got our durometer here.
04:28We've tested all the main surfaces in this cabin.
04:30If you do want to see how this car compares to others that we've tested before, have a look at the link in the description below.
04:36Now, build quality.
04:37What is that like?
04:38A little bit wonky there in the centre.
04:41The rest of that feels pretty good.
04:43That's what our door slam sounds like.
04:44I always get criticised for doing this with the window down, so here it goes.
04:51There's a bottle in the door as well.
04:56Now, let's talk infotainment.
04:58You know, I love my tech, and when I jump into a car and see this, I'm sort of pretty excited by it because it's got the key stuff I need.
05:05Screen ahead of the driver so I can see how fast I'm going, and then an infotainment screen in the centre of the cabin.
05:10So, unlike BYD products, this is a fixed screen.
05:12It doesn't rotate, so they've gone with the sort of portrait display here instead of landscape.
05:18So, it comes with built-in satellite navigation.
05:20Decent feature to have because otherwise you are limited to having to pair your phone to use smartphone mirroring, but this comes with that as well if you don't want to pair your phone.
05:29You have a Sony-branded eight-speaker sound system.
05:32Pretty decent sound system.
05:33AM, FM, DAB digital radio, which is pretty good.
05:37In addition to that, you then have smartphone mirroring that's wireless in the form of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
05:43So, this is Apple CarPlay.
05:45Full-screen integration there.
05:47It's slightly laggy as you sort of whip between those menus, but sort of not the end of the world.
05:52I'll show you what Android Auto looks like.
05:55So, there it is there.
05:56Full-screen integration again.
05:58It was slightly laggy as well, just like CarPlay was, but the fact that you're getting it there and full-screen as well, I think, is pretty decent.
06:05Now, I did notice as well, there is a hole here for a dash cam.
06:10So, it must be an option that they fit to the car that you can potentially get through a dealer, but the cars that we drive in South Africa had dash cams fitted, and that's activated here through that control center.
06:21So, also a decent feature to have just in case you ever need it out on the road.
06:25Head of the driver, you've got a screen that's just over 10 inches in size.
06:29It gives you all the critical information, trip computer, etc.
06:32So, a fair bit of sort of detail there as well.
06:35Now, on the safety front, you don't have an auto-dimming rear vision mirror, which I reckon is a little bit strange here on the top spec model.
06:41You do have blind spot monitoring built into the wing mirror, though.
06:44Front and rear parking sensors.
06:46You upgrade to front parking sensors when you step up to the top spec model.
06:49And you get a 360 camera here as well, along with radar cruise control and a lane-keeping assistant.
06:55Show you what the 360 camera looks like.
06:57So, there it is there.
06:58Pretty reasonable quality.
07:00And then you can actually go to side views as well.
07:02They're actually quite decent quality there as well.
07:05So, yeah, not a bad little setup.
07:07And this is what the horn sounds like.
07:10So, moving on to practicality, and we'll start off with your connectivity.
07:14So, down here, you've got USB-A and a C port.
07:1612 volts on my side.
07:18You've got a wireless phone charger here with a cooler on it as well.
07:22So, if you do pop your phone down there, it'll pump some air into it just so it stays nice and cool.
07:26I think worse than a phone overheating.
07:28In terms of other storage, you can work your phone in here if you want to store it somewhere, which is pretty cool.
07:33A couple of cup holders there.
07:34This centre is interesting.
07:36So, you've got the coin tray up the top, but it drops all the way down with an air-conditioning port and a tissue box holder, which is a cute little thing.
07:45Down near the driver's knee, you've got another little tray there for your odds and ends.
07:48And a glove box down here that's actually quite reasonably sized as well.
07:52And have a look at this.
07:53A little hook for your bag or other sort of bits and pieces.
07:57No sunnies holder, unfortunately.
07:58Let's talk about your comfort features.
08:00So, you have dual-zone automatic climate control with an air-quality monitor as well, which is pretty good.
08:07An ioniser.
08:08You've got seat heating for your front row.
08:11Got a stack of settings there to pick from as well.
08:13In terms of seat comfort, these seats are actually really quite good.
08:16I just wish they were perforated.
08:18So, unfortunately, they're not perforated in you kind of on a hot day like today.
08:22You kind of stick to the seat a little bit.
08:23But they do offer electric seat adjustments.
08:25You can go forwards and backwards.
08:27Your backrest can go forwards and backwards.
08:28You can lift the back of the seat.
08:29Unfortunately, you can't lift the front of the seat, which is one of the things that sometimes irritates me.
08:34I want to be able to adjust that.
08:36Steering offers both tilt and reach adjustment.
08:39Now, let's do a little reach test here.
08:41Look, it kind of works fine there.
08:42It's just that top part that's just a little bit hard to grab if you're sort of sitting in your normal driving position.
08:48Now, second row.
08:49What's it like back here?
08:50So, knee room's actually reasonable.
08:52Tow room's reasonable.
08:53Head room's really good as well.
08:54You know, it's surprising for kind of a smaller midsize SUV.
08:59There is actually a lot of room back here.
09:01They do decent work with packaging cars on wheelbases like this.
09:06It really isn't all too cramped, which is good.
09:08You've got seat pockets here with device holders, USB ANC charging device holder down there.
09:15Air vent back here.
09:16You've got electric seat adjustment for that front passenger seat.
09:19And then center armrest here with a couple of cuff holders as well.
09:22So, overall, pretty good place to be seated.
09:24Window test.
09:25Let's see if it goes all the way down.
09:26So, it's auto up and down.
09:28Oh, look at that.
09:30Now, cargo space.
09:31Let's have a little look.
09:33So, powered tailgate.
09:35So, in its standard configuration, you have just under 600 litres of space.
09:41Now, in theory, you do have rails off to the side here that you could lift this up to sit at a higher level so you can store valuables underneath.
09:48But it's too narrow to sit there, so I'm not exactly sure what that is.
09:52Perhaps there's an accessory available to sit on that top tier.
09:55You've got a cargo blind 12-volt outlet.
09:57Light off to the side with a hook here as well.
10:00If you do want to expand the space, you can drop your second row.
10:03And when you drop that out of the way, it increases the space to just under 1,500 litres.
10:11Okay.
10:11So, we've just hit the road in the Jaycu J7.
10:14Look, this isn't limited to this car.
10:16And this is something that I've mentioned countless times now, but it is just incredibly frustrating.
10:21And that is the need to switch off all of these safety aids and stuff like that when you go for a drive.
10:26So, yeah, basically in this car, it is lane departure warnings, the speed limit assistant, and the driver monitoring system.
10:34All needs to be switched off because it is intrusive and annoying.
10:38And it is pretty much the same on any new car released this year or last year.
10:41And that is because government, they say that you have to have that stuff when, ironically, it's more distracting.
10:46But anyway.
10:47All right.
10:47So, let's run through what this is all about.
10:50So, Jaycu J7 in this particular spec, front-wheel drive, and it uses an engine that's going to be familiar.
10:57Similar to the engine you're going to find in other Cherry products.
11:00And not such a bad thing because this car doesn't weigh an incredible amount.
11:04It's a 1.6-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine.
11:08It's mated to a seven-speed dual-clutch, and that's probably the thing I don't love about this, and I'll explain why in just a second.
11:15But first, just on the power and torque figures, 137 kilowatts of power and 275 newton-metres of torque.
11:22It doesn't sound like a great deal, but, I don't know, when you're driving it, it actually feels fairly adequate.
11:27Like, if you sort of roll into the throttle and then just get stuck into it, there goes my phone.
11:33It sort of pins you back into the seat really nicely.
11:36It's got a decent sense of urgency about it.
11:39And the reason I mention that gearbox is that it's probably its Achilles heel.
11:44You know, European brands have been using dual-clutches for a while now, and they use them for sporty applications, but there are also economy benefits.
11:51So, you're getting something like an 8% to 10% fuel economy saving when you do pair a dual-clutch with a smaller engine like this.
11:58But the problem is that it just makes it a little bit laggy, ironically, even though they're meant to be quite fast.
12:03So, when you're sort of just driving along normally and then you go to sort of bury the foot, you wait, wait, wait, and then it finally starts delivering everything.
12:10So, I'm hoping that, you know, they can in the future move to a torque converter.
12:15This is fine.
12:16It does the job.
12:17But this is one of those things you've got to keep an eye on and make sure you do a test drive because you don't want to be unhappy with the transmission because it's something you've got to live with day to day.
12:25Now, let's talk fuel economy.
12:26So, Jaycu claims a combined average of 7 litres per 100 Ks.
12:30We are currently sitting on 7.3.
12:34So, pretty much bang on the official claim, and that's after some sort of faster driving here earlier today as well.
12:40So, pretty happy with that figure.
12:43Now, sine wave's time.
12:44Let's crank the speed up to 130, test all cars back-to-back in the same way to see what they're like here in terms of body control.
12:52So, there's 130.
12:55Yeah, look, it's got a bit of float about it.
12:56And, look, Chinese brands, they've been getting better with their suspension tunes, but inherently, they're typically quite soft.
13:03And in this instance, it's got a softness about it.
13:07And it's not the end of the world.
13:08Like, it's actually quite comfortable in and around the city, especially on 18s.
13:11I just think it's probably a little bit too soft for country driving like that.
13:15Could do with just a little bit more firmness just to add to that sophistication.
13:20But we'll see what it's like when the speed picks up, because I'm curious to see how that relates to the handling.
13:24Okay, we'll head over to our bumpy road.
13:27So, we do this at 90km an hour.
13:28It's just a shocker of a road.
13:30It represents some of the worst stuff you're going to find here in Australia.
13:37And you know what?
13:38It's actually doing a really nice job here.
13:40Here's our condensed sine wave.
13:42We'll see what this feels like.
13:44Yeah, excellent.
13:46Yeah, the ride's actually really good.
13:47I think it is probably a tiny bit on the softer side, but it performs really well across this sort of stuff,
13:53which you'd expect it to be all over the place.
13:55But it feels very composed, and the ride feels fairly sophisticated as well, which is good.
14:00Okay, drive mode.
14:01So, you've got a little drive mode dial here.
14:03You've got normal, sport, eco.
14:06Pop it into sport.
14:07We'll go for a...
14:08Thank you for confirming that.
14:09So, part of the reason we test higher speeds as well is just to get an idea of what the chassis is like
14:14and where the inherent flaws are in the engineering.
14:18So, we'll see what it's like to brake.
14:20Brake pedal feels good.
14:23Yeah, look, there's a little bit of body roll there, but it's actually managing itself really nicely.
14:34The steering doesn't have the best level of feel in the world.
14:37They've kind of added a bit of artificial weight to it here in sport mode,
14:40but the engine actually responds well in sport mode.
14:44Sort of has better response and just feels a bit livelier.
14:47And it's holding the gears correctly as well there.
14:51Okay, see what it's like on this faster section up the back.
14:56It's actually pretty commendable.
14:58It feels significantly sportier than the last Cherry we've...
15:03Well, there it goes with the emergency braking stuff when you just sort of brake really not that hard.
15:10But, yeah, look, I think it's actually doing quite well here.
15:13It actually feels sportier than some of the other Cherry products I've driven.
15:17So, I think they've actually done a decent job with that.
15:19I'd be curious to see what it would be like with the tri-motor plug-in hybrid version
15:25because that is a whole lot of grunt.
15:27And I'd be curious to see what it's like in this type of chassis
15:30because it could actually be some good fun if they sort of tune it right.
15:33Now, let's talk about road noise.
15:35So, look, there isn't a huge amount, but you will notice on course-chip roads
15:39that you do get a little bit more coming to the cabin.
15:41With that being said, though, they've done a really good job in terms of isolating engine noise
15:45because when you do sort of get up it, even though the engine is sort of doing 4,000 or 5,000 RPM,
15:50you don't get a huge amount coming into the cabin.
15:52And you also don't get a huge amount of wind noise either,
15:54which is pretty impressive for an SUV that sits quite high off the ground.
15:58So, from a noise point of view, they've done well.
16:00So, this is how it went when we put it up against our calibrated sound meter.
16:04If you do want to see how this car compares to others that we've tested before,
16:07there's a link in the description below.
16:09Now, visibility.
16:10So, I can see clearly down the front of the car there.
16:12Wing mirrors are nice and big with a blind spot monitor built into them.
16:15Visibility out the back isn't great.
16:17It's a very narrow window there.
16:19I think that could be a little bit better,
16:20but outside of that, it's actually quite a decent driving position.
16:25Okay, let's test the semi-autonomous systems.
16:27We do this at 70 Ks an hour.
16:29We'll just see what it's like here out on the bowl.
16:32So, we'll get that up to 70.
16:34Okay, so, we're going to test in the three outer lanes here.
16:38So, we'll start off with this lane.
16:40Seems to be doing a pretty reasonable job there in this first lane.
16:44We'll jump over to the next lane.
16:50Thank you, thank you.
16:51Wait for that to engage for that to go blue.
16:53Perfect.
16:54Good job in this lane, too.
16:57It's actually holding us really nice and central there.
17:00Very good.
17:01All right.
17:01This is the hardest one, the top lane.
17:03Let's see how it performs up here.
17:07Wait for that to go blue.
17:11All right, that's blue now.
17:14Fantastic.
17:15That's holding us pretty central to that lane.
17:17Very impressive.
17:20Nice.
17:21Those systems work really well, which is good to see.
17:23Okay, let's do a little bit of performance testing.
17:26So, put this into sport mode.
17:29And we'll see how it goes from zero all the way through to 120 kilometers an hour.
17:34That'll give us our 80 to 120 as well.
17:36So, here we go.
17:37Super laggy off the line there.
17:49All right, so.
17:53Men's 100.
17:57And 120.
17:59Yeah, off the line, just waiting for that dual clutch to figure out what it wants to do.
18:03Because typically, unless you have a launch control system, it just takes a little while for it to wake up.
18:08But let's see how that went.
18:11Zero to 100.
18:139.32 seconds.
18:15So, reasonable.
18:15Not amazing.
18:1780 to 120.
18:176.08 seconds.
18:19So, you can see there that most of that delay was it getting off the line.
18:24Because once it gets off the line, it actually moves along pretty nicely.
18:27So, yeah.
18:28I don't expect a car like this to have launch control.
18:30But it would be good for it to just get up and move a little bit quicker off the line.
18:34Okay, let's see what the brake and tire package is like.
18:37We'll do a stop from 100 k's an hour.
18:39Okie dokie.
18:40So, here we go.
18:46All right.
18:47Let's have a look.
18:49So, 100 to zero.
18:51Three seconds and 42.19 meters.
18:54So, I think that could definitely do with some improvement.
18:57Sort of anywhere between 35 and 40 is good.
19:00Over 40, not great.
19:01So, I think they probably need to do a little bit of work on the brake and tire package there.
19:06All right.
19:06How quickly does it go in reverse?
19:08Here we go.
19:11Oh, it's hoofing.
19:1454 kilometers an hour.
19:15Very nice.
19:17Okay.
19:17So, JQJ7.
19:18Front wheel drive.
19:19What do we think?
19:20Look, I'm struggling to find other ways that you could better spend this much money on an SUV.
19:25It really has a great looking interior, loads of technology, plenty of punch when you need it.
19:31It is kind of let down a little bit by that gearbox, but I don't know.
19:34The rest is very hard to fault.
19:36Perhaps the driver assistance stuff, but that is common to basically any car you buy today.
19:40So, look, I think it's excellent value for money.
19:42Let me know in the comments section below.
19:44Have you bought one?
19:45What has it been like?
19:46And are you enjoying it?
19:48I am keen for your feedback.
19:49If you did enjoy this video, please make sure you like it and you share it with your mates.
19:52And if you haven't done, so already subscribe to the channel and press the bell icon.
19:55But until next time, take it easy.
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