2005 Chery A160 1.6 HEMI from Malaysia
Summary:
A forgotten hero!
Faults:
One of the air conditioning knobs (the one which is selected to direct the air to the top passenger...) broke off. It is caused by the careless technician.
Water suddenly splashed in under the front passenger seat under the glove box. Fixed.
Both headlamp covers become yellowish and blurred. Replaced the entire headlamp (both sides) for free.
General Comments:
This is the first Chinese car to enter the Malaysia market. Sales volume was poor because there is almost no marketing that's been done except in newspapers. It is the only 4 door sedan in its price range to be equipped with ABS+EBD. The engine is a Ford derived CVH engine. It has hemisphere combustion chamber. Its multi-point fuel injection system was made by Magneti Mirelli.
Most of the engine parts are from other countries, you can easily spot "Made in Germany", "Made in USA", "Made in Switzerland" in the engine compartment.
Reliability is very good, after just 3 months of owning this car, I had go for a convoy trip to Thailand. The total journey is about 2000km. The car went there and back without any problems.
Fuel consumption is average, about 8 liter per 100km in city driving.
The manual transmission is very smooth and easy to shift. The only problem is that the ratio is too short. As a result, the car runs 100km/h and about 3200rpm.
The boot space is huge (550L, 1360L seat folded) and is open like a hatchback. The drawback for the hatchback type boot is that it's very heavy to open.
The air-conditioning unit cools the interior very fast, even in the middle of afternoon.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 30th September, 2006
30th Sep 2006, 16:22
To be honest, this sounds like advertising.
1st Oct 2006, 07:12
My dad had an Escort with the 1.4 litre CVH engine and I always thought it stood for Chronic Vibration and Harshness.
22nd Nov 2009, 01:15
Definitely an advertisement from desperate sales person that's selling a rubbish.
In short the A160's headlamps will oxidize and go 'yellow mellow' within a year, the gearbox is rubbish, the crash standards are not proven, I don't care if it's based on a Golf mk3, it's just the drawings of the chassis.
You have to really hate Malaysian cars to buy such a rubbish. Good reliability? 2000km? Are you serious? Any Proton can go for a one shot 5,000km without breaking down my desperate sales man.
The government should ban the sale of such rubbish products.
29th Jun 2010, 21:22
It is a strange review. No one will call his reviews "A forgotten hero" unless to draw attention.
Also, after just 3000Km of ownership, the reviewer will say:
Reliability is very good.
Fuel consumption is average.
The manual transmission is very smooth and easy to shift.
The boot space is huge.
The air-conditioning unit cools the interior very fast.
Does this sound too good to be true?
30th Sep 2006, 10:37
Sounds very odd for a Chinese manufacturer to source their subcomponents from the West...