Haval H6 Review - The SUV turning the South African market upside down

Insurance affordable because you can't afford not to .

Hello and welcome to the inside of the Val H six .

I'm finally driving this car .

I can't wait to review it for you because everyone has been asking me about it .

I get tweets , I get Facebooks .

I get Instagrams .

If I tweet about another brand , you guys reply and say please review the Hava H Six .

How do you think it makes that other brand feel ?

You know , think about that , think about it before you reply .

Anyway , this is going to be a very in depth review .

So stick around .

But before we get going on that , I'd like to tell you about a product we've launched called Match .

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Go check it out here we go ha V H six review .

Finally , I'm excited .

I hope you're excited as well .

So let's start with the basics .

What is a Hava H six ?

Well , it's similarly sized to cars like say Hyundai , Tucson , Kia Portage Volkswagen , Tiguan .

I mean , there's tons of cars in this segment , Mazda C X five for instance .

And it's sort of second in charge , second in command in the line up .

You got the H nine , which is a really , really large car that's like sort of Toyota Prado size .

In fact , it's actually based on a Prado .

Then you've got this H six .

Then below this , you've got the Jolly on and below that you've got the H two .

So this is their kind of premium subcompact middle of the range S U V .

Now the Joleon is selling up a storm and it seems that this is as well because someone emailed me the other day and said , can you help me find an H six because I cannot find one to buy .

So Hall also suffering stock issues like the rest of the manufacturers as well , but it means that these things are selling out .

And I think a large part of the reason why these are flying off showroom floors is because of the pricing right .

Bear with me here , maybe get a pencil and paper out .

A lot of numbers coming at you .

So let us compare the H six to something like a Volkswagen Polo , which is a bit of an odd comparison to make .

But hear me out a top spec polo , not the G T I just , the one liter is 404,000 rand .

Whereas you can get into a bottom of the range H six , like not the one I'm driving the bottom of the range for 419,000 rand .

So that's a price difference of 15,000 .

Now , if you finance that at 10% no balloon , no deposit over five years , the difference is 350 rand a month between a Polo and this .

And it kind of feels like you can fit a Polo inside here , which is a bit awkward .

But let me further illustrate for you how good the pricing is .

So bottom of the range H 64 19 , top of the range H 65 14 with literally all the bells and whistles just about every feature you can think of .

And at 5 14 , that means that the top of the range val H six is cheaper than the bottom of the range Volkswagen Tiguan .

So you might be thinking to yourself , how is it possibly that cheap ?

Where have they cut the corners to bring the price down that much ?

And as I sit here , it's very hard to answer that question .

I , I , I don't know , I can't quite tell where all the cheapness is coming from because as I sit here , this is one of the most luxurious , small ish suvs that I've ever been in and it's not just the interior trim , you know , I mean , it's fairly straightforward to put , you know , nice leather trim and stitching on the doors and all that sort of thing .

I mean , that's not terribly complicated where it's hard to get right is in the drive train and this is probably one of the best Chinese drive trains that I've ever experienced .

So under the Bonnet two liter turbocharged petrol connected to a seven speed dual clutch gearbox , which is pretty impressive going in this particular case to all four wheels .

But you can buy a cheaper version where it's just front wheel drive and the power outputs are pretty healthy , 150 kilowatts and 320 Newton meters .

Now , that's not as powerful as say the two liter in the Volkswagen Tiguan high line , but that car costs um over 700,000 rand .

So if you compare it to say the Volkswagen 1.4 in the tig one , then this has way more power like 50% more power and torque .

So this is a very , very decent drive train and it does feel like , you know , sometimes I drive these Chinese cars and it feels like the gearbox and the engine are not talking to each other .

So luck , you know what I mean ?

They're like , they're having a little argument all the time , you know , in like soap operas where they have an argument and then they just stand at different sides of the room and not look at each other .

It's a bit like that , that's , that's what happens .

But this one .

Wow , these guys have been to marriage counseling .

This is a very smooth marriage going over here .

Great relationship .

Very positive time for a cabin tour of the val H six .

Let's start with the key .

It's actually quite nice .

It's got this sort of brushed aluminum look .

I don't think you'll be disappointed by that .

I quite like it .

And overall , you're looking at a sort of range rover type feel in here .

It actually reminds me quite a bit of the Evoque , which is a car which costs more than double , lots of leather , lots of soft touch surfaces .

Look at the nice stitching here on the door stitching over there , leather , leather , leather , leather steering wheel , it's a really nicely appointed cabin with some good quality materials .

But overall , it's actually the design that impresses me .

So look how well the air vents are integrated into the dashboard , sort of follows the smooth line right across underneath your dials and across here it makes this just a very pleasing , very pleasant place to be .

I do think they've nailed the interior design and by going with a drive by wire system on the gearbox , they've created a massive space under here which is also very convenient .

They've also created a massive space in this bin that's very convenient .

This is your drinks holder , but you pop that out over there and then it will support your drinks or you move it away and you've got another nice storage area .

Now , as I mentioned , and we're driving the luxury model .

If you went up to super luxury , you'd get such things as an electric tailgate for instance , but you'd also get a wireless charging pad which would be over there .

Now , what you can't miss in here are the two screens .

The fact that I've got this little screen in front of me makes the car feel very , very modern .

Indeed .

They haven't gone with say a traditional instrument biel which then doesn't have dials and has a screen .

They've completely done away with that .

And you just get this little screen sitting on the dashboard .

It's a little weird at first , but you do get used to it and this is also full of information and you can get most of your info on this screen right in front of you .

You control it with the buttons over here , these buttons over here , control this screen , but it is also touch capable .

So if you want to go into your air con settings , for instance , there's your air con media over here over here is your main driving function .

So you can change between all the sport modes .

This car even has hill descent control and an off road mode and you can change your steering mode as well .

You can turn off your stop start over there , Android Auto , of course , available , Apple Car play that's also available as well .

I'm not sure what picture is that you can display pictures on the dashboard , maybe not entirely sure about that .

But let me show you quite possibly the most impressive feature of the screen and the sort of car in general I have to turn the car on for that .

So let's hit the start button .

Now , if I go into reverse , look at how impressive this 3D camera system is , you get this full 3D view which you can drag around manually like that and have a look at what is around the car and it works when you're on the move as well .

So there's your top down view , which is a sort of eagle eye view of your car .

And then here is your 3D view .

Now you can switch to two D which is a bit more basic , but this is really , really impressive if you're converse into something in this car .

I don't know , you've either got your eyes closed or you're extremely , extremely distracted .

Very , very cool camera system .

You would pay a lot of money for that sort of option on any other sort of luxury S U V .

And it also goes into the sort of curb view mode so that you don't hit an inside pavement when you slow down at an intersection .

It does that automatically really , really impressed by that .

Indeed , a couple of other niceties and I should point out this is all included in the purchase price .

You got radar guided cruise control .

That's very nice .

The super luxury will steer itself between the lanes , but you don't get that .

You just get lane departure warning in here , automatic headlights , automatic windscreen wipers , automatic windows all around electric mirror adjustments as well .

It's very difficult to try and find features that this car is missing .

And remember we're not even in the top of the range model and something that I find particularly nice about this luxury is the panoramic roof .

So you hit that and it just opens up this gigantic panoramic roof and you can open half of it as well .

So you do get this kind of sun roof feeling and that makes the cabin really light and airy .

Wow , that is a big sunroof .

Holy moly cool .

And with that , let's jump in the back seats .

You know , when you get on a plane and you walk past everyone sitting in business class and you're like , you're like angry .

Well , now you can have that experience .

Look at this leg room to the seat in front .

That was my driving position .

Acres of space .

I , I feel like I'm in my lounge .

This is so comfortable and rear passengers are well catered for .

You've got air vents , you've got two USB ports .

In fact , this car has five USB ports , two in the front sort of by your thigh and one up where you can plug in a dash cam behind the rear view mirror .

So that's nice .

Uh if you fold this down , you get drinks holders for the rear passengers as well .

There's three proper seat belts , not just a center lap belt that's really important and importantly , curtain airbags , there are six airbags on this car and then that panoramic roof .

Wow , it's lovely and just sort of look up at the stars .

Well , in this case , the trees as I'm sitting here , but I'm just seriously impressed with the leg room .

And this actually comes from the fact that this car is actually a fair bit bigger than and its brother the jolly on .

In fact , I asked myself that this morning , how much bigger is it ?

Really ?

And I went on to the Kaza Cosa app and used the compare tool and we go into real nitty gritty detail .

So you can see wheelbase length , the length of the car , the width of the car , the wheel base is only three centimeters longer , but the entire length is 20 centimeters longer .

And in car design terms , that is a big difference and you can see it here in your knee room , ok .

Boot tour time , parcel shells , obviously that folds out of the way and goes through there .

Now , this floor has some tricks up its sleeve underneath .

It is a skinny spare and a fire extinguisher because that's actually a legal requirement in China .

Interestingly enough , but you can move this to two different heights that creates a little bit of a lip .

But if you move it up , then it's pretty much flushed with the exit , which I know some people I know that's important to some people .

Actually , for some reason , you've got a light which is underneath the parcel shelf .

Now , that's actually quite clever .

I was in a car recently where the light was above the parcel shelf .

And then at night , everything underneath is just completely dark .

You just cannot find anything you're looking for .

So that's quite a clever piece of design .

The seats fold down in 60 40 split , but it would have been so nice to have a seed release over here .

You kind of have to go around .

I mean , I can , I can kind of reach , it's a bit of a stretch .

There we go .

Well , I suppose you can get it done and remember this is the luxury model .

So you don't get the electric tailgate , which you would get if you went up to the super luxury .

So I have to close this myself .

What a what a mission .

Ok .

So let's let's quickly check , you know , let's do recaps .

So pricing amazing drive train .

Very , very good indeed .

Um uh Right .

Let's try to find some problems with this car .

Mm mm .

No , no , no , this is quite good .

Uh , steering wheel is quite nice .

Uh It's very smooth , it's very quiet , it's very comfortable .

So there must be a catch , right ?

I mean , there must be something is it is , it maybe very fuel inefficient and actually , we're getting a better average out of this than the smaller engine in the Jolly on .

And we think it's because this engine is just not working nearly as hard to pull this body along as the smaller engine in the Jolly on .

And actually , it's quite interesting to compare inside the brand to compare the H Six and the Jolly on .

So if you're trying to decide between an H six and that car , the pricing is relatively close .

So 3 99 is your top spec Jolly on and this starts at 4 19 .

So that's only 20 .

But when you take the top spec Jolly on , you get all the toys .

I mean , the thing steers itself between the lane , you know , electric tail gates , all that sort of thing .

Whereas if you get into a bottom end H six , you've got none of that .

You've just kind of got a bigger car with a bigger engine basically .

And in terms of options and trim levels , you can't really add options into the ha range .

Essentially .

What they've done is make packages .

So if you go for the super luxury , you get quite a bit more toys and features compared to this , the luxury , you can't buy a luxury and then say , just add one or two things , you actually have to go up a bracket , but the brackets are actually quite small .

And for each time you jump , you get a really impressive set of features , I also think with the standard 19 inch wheels and the super luxury , this car will look even better .

Now you're probably watching this and thinking , ok , Chera , all good and well , it's a nice car .

It looks quite nice .

It's got a fancy interior , it's got big touch screens and all the rest of it .

But is this car going to fall apart in 345 years time ?

Well , that's a very difficult question for me to answer .

I get this car for a couple of days and then I give it back and I never see it again .

I'm not necessarily gonna go out and buy one so I can't really give you a definitive answer on that .

What I can tell you is that is really , really putting their money where their mouth is and inside the incredible value , the incredible price that they're selling these cars at , they're including a really , really decent warranty .

So five year 100,000 warranty , five year , 60,000 service plan .

And when you consider that brands like Volkswagen and Toyota only offer a three year warranty as standard and Mazda as well .

Three year unlimited , getting a five year right off the bat .

Feels like a pretty good deal .

And that's quite a lot of cover for quite a long time .

And interestingly if you buy from the Thorpe Motor Group , then you get an extra two year warranty added So that's seven years of cover inside your purchase price .

So the big question , should you buy a Havat H six ?

What are you in the market for ?

Well , this is quite complicated because I drove to the shoot this morning in a BMW X three and that's a very nice car .

That's north of a million rand .

Double this price more than double actually .

And to be honest , yes , that does feel like a more substantial car .

Feels like you're getting more car than this , but you're not getting as many features .

That's where the val really shines .

So if you like bells and whistles and toys , Herve is rarely leading this segment right now .

I mean , for instance , that camera system , you , you would pay extra for that quite a lot extra for that in a three million rand range rover , for instance , definitely in a car like the BMW X three .

But the reality is South Africans are pretty squeezed right now .

Things are pretty difficult .

Fuel is very expensive .

Electricity is very expensive , but people don't necessarily want to compromise on the luxury of their car .

And I think that if you want to buy down , you can safely buy down into a car like this , save a lot of money and you won't be disappointed .

I don't think you'll feel short changed .

And the last time I did a count in this particular segment , so I'm talking , you know , Tiguan Rav four Maza 65 Tucson Kage , you know , this sort of segment .

The last time I did a count , I counted 16 competitors in this segment in this country .

16 .

So the H six has some serious competition , but none of them can beat this on price , none of them .

And in terms of what you get in the super luxury model , I can almost guarantee that none of them can beat it on tech , especially because you don't need to go near the options list when it comes to the age six , everything is included .

So again , I ask myself , should you buy a , a age six ?

And I think the simple answer is I can't see why you wouldn't .

I can't see a good reason to tell you not to buy this car .

In fact , all I can see is a bunch of reasons that make this car really , really appealing .

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It's a good idea for a bunch of reasons which I actually don't have really a lot of time to go into .

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