Great Wall

If your comparing them with a $20000 price range vehicle there just OK but no where near as good as Kia, Hyundia and the other mainstream players out of Asia.

They look the part and tick most of the right boxes to the unknowing but as they say looks are only skin deep.

Was talking with a major car dealer regarding the Great Wall ute range and they had a customer who wanted to trade a 10 month old V240 in on a new Hilux, the dealer wasn't interested and they tried the wholesalers..... most didn't want it and the best they could get was $6000..... the guy accepted it.

If your after a cheap 4x4 that is good for the short term with no resale value, unknown reliability, high NVH and poor safety you can't go past them.

All the motoring press hate them.

But like all thing there is a market for them.

Any vehicle that has a recall before it even hits the market has got to be suspect. Faulty seat belts? Maybe they found somewhere to put all that melamine they can't use in milk any more.

hi brian r w.a
from the several reports i have read on the g-wall they have a mitsubitshi engine and gearbox/trans but its one that mmal dont use them selves any more and have sold them off to the chinese
the problem i see with these vehicles is they are a one owner drive it til' it stops situation as no one else will buy it off you

but then the $18000/ petrol 5.9ltr v8 jeep cherokee auto quadra trac i bought in 1979 and tried to get a decent trade-in for in 1982 i could only manage $12000
no one wanted it as there weren't many in aus at the time
so really people will eventually take to the g/wall because of the postage stamp prices and sales figures are starting to reflect that
not everyone can afford a landcruiser /range rover /nissan patrol etc
just my thoughts
barry

It would be nice to get an accurate report from an existing owner though.

You get what you pay for, I'd rather a 2nd hand Hilux or other Jap brand 4X4 Ute, don't know how the Great Wall's are going for reliability, early days

As has been said, the stuff that we get from Japan and is now considered top shelf went through the same "developemental" period in the 60's and 70's.
Whether some of the present crop morph into a reasonable quality and accepted array of brand names remains to be seen. One thing is certain, as the quality improves, which it may, the price will also reflect and "cheap" will not be a selling point.


ob

I travel to China for work and in the last 5 weeks have done more km's in a car built in China than any where else.
In a country with 1.34 billion people most driving cars we would "not own". It is fair to say that they are getting tested. The China way is to get something new then use it till its destroyed so they have the right testing grounds. I would be interested to see the sales figures on cars supplied to China, India etc -V- the rest of the world I think they would have a fair chunk of the market.

On saying this I too like my Hilux. BUT I would buy one for a run around and family car if it was to meet safety standards.

Regards Craig.

Hi Brian,
Wouldn't touch one with a ten foot pole.
Same as them Indian things that came out ten years ago or more. The price is tempting for some, A throw away 4wd, I reckon.
Makes ya wonder what the back up service will be like in ten years time or more.
I maybe bias, but I can still walk into a toyo dealer and order brand new parts for my 80, admittedly they are over priced, but I still can get new parts for a 20 year old 4wd.
Sheesh, the old girls 20 years old this December, I'll have to have a drink with her and wish her a Happy 20th.

So far in this thread there was only one owner who gave feedback and it was positive. I remember when the Hyundia Excel was released and it was $9,990 drive away. The first company to have a drive away price. Came with 5 years 130,000 klm warranty. No they weren't a car that was to become a collectors item but they allowed a lot of people who couldn't have afforded anything other than a second hand car with 3 months warranty to buy a new car with warranty. Some of these Excels are still going 15 years later.

If the people who buy these Great Walls get through the 3 years under warranty and the car is worth say $5000-$8000. Yes they have lost around $15,000 in 3 years but ask any Landcruiser, Patrol, Land Rover or Jeep owner and they would have loved to only have lost $15,000 off their buy price in 3 years. Don't worry about percentages we buy our bread and milk with money.

I would love to find the dealer who traded the guys Great Wall for $6,000 because the cheapest Great Wall 4 x 4 on CarSales at the moment is $18,200 with 36,000klms on the clock. Someone has made a killing somewhere.

No they are not the same as the Hiluxes, Navaras, Pajeros and the like but if it can get a family out of an old clunker into something that has warranty and is required to meet certain safety standards then good on them.

John

Haven't noticed the Toyota owners referring to the incredible amount of recalls byToyota lately?

The reliability of the Patrol engines makes them a legend in their own lunchtime.

The tradies around here are into The G/W and seem to be happy with them when asked. Most of them traded in their old HiLux, so there must be something going for them.

I also find it interesting that people who have never owned one, driven one have these biased points of view. It is of course a given, that everyone has a right to express their views. A view with some basis would have more credibility.

We purchased a new Prado Grande in 2005 for $72,000 and the best I could get for it as a trade in with 20,000km in 2008 was $55,000. The Ford dealer described it as new and it did not even get onto his lot, the manager grabbed it straight away. That gave me a loss of $17,000 in 3 years.

Not good economics, in my book.

Like a couple of people have said, look what Hyundai have managed to do?

Dusty

The G Wall has Mitsubishi running gear. However the gearing is for a car and there have been many complaints of premature clutch failure trying to get one to start off up the slightest hill. If you are a tradie and have a slight load in the back forget it unless you are pointing down hill.

WB

the biggest issue wioth them is not being converted properly for Australian conditions

In typical Chinese fashion the got the steering wheel in the right place but being made in the Northern Hemisphere they overlooked the fact they need to be turned over before shipping to Australia

Today's Australian has the Great Wall company marked as selling its 10,000th vehicle in Australia already. There may be some issues with build quality and NVH at the moment but I can't believe these won't be rapidly attended to over the next few years. Chinese factories have been manufacturing high end product for numerous European and US companies for a number of years now. It breaks me up when people automatically presume something is junk just because it is made in China. They were doing high end manufacturing (ceramics, woodcraft etc.) when Romulus was doing wolf cub imitations.

Re the posts about Japanese cars being rubbish back in the seventies: I remember doing Mechanics training at TAFE in the early 80's, we had to strip down an engine. Most people had holden motors. I brought in an old 1300 Alfa twin cam unit. One of the lads brought in hs old man's Honda S800 engine from the late sixties. I can remember us gathering around that Honda engine, it was a little jewel. Beautifully made and in fantastic condition for its miles. Made the Holden units look agricultural (they were!).

By the way, check out the safety for the X240 and compare with other vehicles. Not the disaster being painted here! Most people making derogatory comments have probably never seen one, let alone driven one.

Cheers (Ni Hao),

Mark

Thanks for that Mark, it really does go to show that we could well be surprised with the future success of the Great Wall .
Thanks to everyone for the response, I have found everyones comments most interesting.....if not a little DRY at times :-))

all have a great day
Brian

G'day Brian and all - trawling through various on line forums a while back, i'm sure i ran across a Great wall only forum, must have another look and see if i can find it again.

regards - bb

Hi Brian,

Just spoke to my dad in Germany a few days ago, he was saying Great wall was trying to get their slice of the cake over there. Well the Germans Safety Association had a good look, a decent giggle and send them back where they came from, brake issues, airbag problems and so on, it has been an artilce in the German version of the "Open Road" so tested by the ADAC which is equivalent to NRMA.

But I agree we'll see what they come up with after the got rid of there premature problems.

Enjoy your evening.

Jens

This guy was looking at standard second hand hiluxes etc. He decided to but a Great Wall, got all brand new accessories for it and was still in front (money wise). He is enjoying it as far as I know.