Chery Tiggo 4 will land with a very sharp price
Two trim levels will be offered: the entry-level Urban and the better-equipped Ultimate, both powered by a 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine producing 108kW and 210Nm. The Tiggo 4 has already made waves across the Tasman since launching in Australia in late 2024, winning accolades such as Wheels' Best Small SUV: Best Value and Drive's Best Urban Car Under $30k .
The Urban model features 17-inch alloy wheels, LED headlights and taillights, a dual 10.25-inch digital instrument cluster and multimedia touchscreen, and wired/wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. It also includes a six-speaker sound system, voice command system ('Hello Chery'), seven airbags, a reverse camera, and Chery's full suite of ADAS safety systems.
Read more Chery announces Tiggo SUV models for New Zealand
Priced at $29,990 plus ORCs, the Ultimate adds 18-inch alloys, a 360-degree camera system, heated artificial leather seats, a power sunroof, 15W wireless charging, ambient lighting, and power folding mirrors, among other enhancements.
'We're excited to bring the Tiggo 4 to New Zealand – a smart, stylish SUV that has already proven its value in Australia,' said Lucas Harris, COO of Chery ANZ. 'With modern features, outstanding ownership benefits and an unbeatable value proposition, the Tiggo 4 will hit the mark for Kiwi families and first-time SUV buyers alike.'
Backing the local launch is a network of 10 dealerships nationwide, offering full sales and aftersales support. With a five-star ANCAP safety rating and sharp pricing, the Chery Tiggo 4 looks set to be a compelling new player in New Zealand's compact SUV market.
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NZ Herald
6 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Global ‘mining mafia' feeds China's appetite for gold, investigation shows
As part of a strategic effort to reduce reliance on the US dollar, insulate itself from potential United States sanctions and build its own capacity to influence the international monetary system, China is procuring gold at a voracious pace. This drive has fuelled and facilitated a surge in illicit gold mining across the Global South, inflicting a trail of environmental destruction from Indonesia to Ghana to French Guiana, a Washington Post investigation found. The Post examination of China's role in the booming trade in illicit gold is based on a review of satellite imagery, trade data, public records, and dozens of interviews with gold researchers, law enforcement and government officials across three continents. In Indonesia, where the proliferation of illicit mining has been among the most widespread and least studied, the Post obtained internal government documents and visited half a dozen secluded gold-mining communities being transformed by Chinese-led operations. Chinese workers at these locations declined to speak to the Post, but Chinese mining operators in Indonesia said in interviews that investment in the country's gold sector is spiking. In videos aimed at investors on Chinese social media, Chinese miners advertise 'free and easy' access to Indonesia's vast gold deposits. In May, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) warned that organised crime was embedding itself so deeply in gold supply chains that it poses a 'serious global threat'. As Chinese demand drives gold prices above US$3000 per ounce, drug cartels, terrorists, and mercenary groups are deepening their involvement in the sector, UNODC said. Almost all these actors work in some capacity with Chinese mining concerns, which are present from 'mine to market' and have the greatest ability to work in the most unexploited locations, according to those who study the gold sector. Many illicit gold operations are being financed and operated directly by Chinese private investors who appear to be operating with little oversight or repercussion from Chinese authorities, investigators say. This has drawn allegations from gold-rich countries that Beijing is permitting the ransacking of gold deposits abroad, enabling a rapidly mutating trade that UN officials warn is propping up a range of other criminal activities. Makeshift tents at an illegal gold mine set up by Chinese investors in the village of Sekotong in Indonesia. Photo / Muhammad Fadli, The Washington Post Chinese officials have pushed back against these allegations, including the Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, Tong Defa, who in June said it was a 'significant injustice' to blame Beijing for the spread of illegal gold mining. The Chinese Foreign Ministry and the China Chamber of Commerce of Metals, Minerals and Chemicals Importers and Exporters did not respond to detailed questions from the Post. The Chinese Embassy in Washington said it was 'not aware' of the allegations made by gold-rich countries about China's role and declined to comment. 'Chinese networks have become deeply involved in the illicit gold trade,' said David Soud, a minerals analyst who has written reports on gold for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). 'Much of the gold they mine or otherwise acquire goes to China via highly opaque supply chains.' This is routinely done without the payment of local taxes or royalties, officials and analysts say. Illicit Chinese syndicates, according to Soud and other investigators, operate differently from both traditional, artisanal gold miners and industrial, legal mining companies, including those from China. A woman sifts through crushed ore for gold deposits on Sumbawa. Photo / Muhammad Fadli, The Washington Post While artisanal miners use little to no machinery, illicit Chinese operators employ crushers, excavators and other tools to extract at a scale that rivals industrial mines. Unlike industrial mines, analysts say, the syndicates operate without regard to environmental, health and safety regulations, degrading forests and rivers at rates not seen before in many communities. In the sites where they operate, Chinese syndicates are also driving a transition from using mercury for processing to cyanide – a more effective but also more hazardous process when employed without strict controls, according to mining experts. 'This system has gotten much more complex and much more organised,' said Brad Brooks-Rubin, a former US State Department official who worked on mineral supply chains in the Biden Administration. 'The Western policy world has largely missed what has happened.' The operations of PT Amman Mineral International, a legal Indonesian-owned mine on western Sumbawa. Illicit mining is spreading on the eastern side of the island. Photo / Muhammad Fadli, The Washington Post In a sign that the issue is just now emerging as a policy concern, the Trump Administration in March for the first time designated gold among the minerals vital to the US as part of an executive order to 'reduce our reliance on foreign nations'. In a hearing a few days later, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Africa, Representative Chris Smith (Republican-New Jersey), described China and its mining interests as the 'greatest beneficiaries' of the illicit gold trade. Beijing has rebuffed appeals from regulators in gold-rich countries to help crack down on Chinese-run mining syndicates and opted out of multilateral efforts to counter the underground trade, officials and advocates said in interviews. According to a Post review of government statements, court records and news reports, authorities in at least 15 gold-rich countries have brought cases against Chinese nationals and companies over illicit gold mining since the start of 2024. – In Ghana, Africa's top gold-exporting country, officials say Chinese syndicates have laid waste to swathes of Ghana's west and south, and are now moving to the country's north. 'The Chinese Government is doing nothing about it,' said Ghanaian lawmaker Tiah Abdul-Kabiru Mahama, calling the Chinese Communist Party 'complicit' in the destruction. Hundreds of Chinese nationals have been arrested just in recent months. Ghana has tried seeking the help of Chinese authorities, but to little avail, Lands and Natural Resources Minister Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah said in an interview. Miners who are deported are routinely able to find their way back into the country, Buah said, adding, 'It has been tough'. – In Indonesia, Asia's biggest gold producer after China, officials at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources say they receive reports almost daily of illegal gold mines across the country's sprawling archipelago, the biggest of which are linked to Chinese nationals, based on preliminary investigations. In one high-profile case last year, Indonesian authorities asked the Chinese Embassy to help identify its citizens and assist with the probe. 'They were not co-operative,' said an Indonesian official. The Chinese suspects fled Indonesia, the official added. - In French Guiana, an overseas department of France in South America, Chinese investors form a 'crucial logistical chain' in an illicit gold market that the French military spends tens of millions of dollars annually to combat, said the Foundation for Strategic Research (FRS), a defence think-tank funded in part by the French Government, in a 2023 report. 'The involvement of Chinese players,' FRS said, 'is part of a global context of resource capture and predation, encouraged or facilitated by the Chinese government.' Mystery holdings China has been among the world's biggest buyers of gold for over a decade, according to data from the World Gold Council, a trade association. But it's a mystery, analysts say, as to how much gold it actually has – and where it comes from. The Chinese Communist Party is heavily involved in acquiring gold for the state, whether through the People's Bank of China, brokers or via industrial policies that have encouraged retail buying and incentivised gold mining abroad, gold and financial analysts say. In 2017, Song Xin, then president of the China Gold Association, said the Belt and Road Initiative, China's US$1 trillion ($1.68t) global infrastructure programme, is 'also a golden road'. From 2000 to 2024, Chinese state-owned creditors inked 85 loan commitments for gold extraction and processing projects across the Global South, according to data provided to the Post by AidData, a research lab at William and Mary in Virginia. It's now easier for Chinese miners to find work outside China than at home, said Zeng Shanyue, a Chinese gold-mining investor based in Indonesia. Many of those going abroad originate from the southern province of Guangxi, which has a long tradition of mining. But businessmen from elsewhere in China, like his province of Zhejiang, are also moving in. 'Everyone,' Zeng said, 'is mining'. A ute carries gold ore for processing at an illegal gold mine in eastern Indonesia. Photo / Muhammad Fadli, The Washington Post To China's strategic thinkers, it is not enough. 'China's gold reserves are still insufficient and should be increased further,' said Liu Ping, a senior CCP official, in March at the annual meeting of China's top political advisory body. Gold is 'a crucial tool' for the country's national security, said Zhang Zhigang, another party official. While many countries are not fully transparent with their gold holdings, there are exceptionally large discrepancies between what Chinese authorities say they have and independent assessments from trade groups and banks. In a September 2024 research document, Goldman Sachs said its estimates of the Chinese central bank's gold purchases have been in certain months as much as 60 tonnes higher than the central bank declared. Over the course of 2024, said gold analyst Jan Nieuwenhuijs at Money Metals, the People's Bank of China covertly bought 570 tonnes of gold, and it has now accumulated more than twice the gold it says it has. The scale of China's acquisitions is changing the gold market, Nieuwenhuijs told the Post. 'And the reason is that they really see the gold as an alternative to the dollar,' he said. The People's Bank of China did not respond to requests for comment. In a statement, China's General Administration of Customs said it follows 'international conventions' on compiling and publishing information. 'China's gold import and export data is open and transparent,' it said. Given gold's strategic value, it's natural for China's holdings to be 'classified', said Zhao Qingming, an adjunct professor at the School of Finance of the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing. 'No country openly discloses whether its gold reserves are acquired domestically or internationally, or how much is sourced from each channel,' Zhao said. The problem, researchers say, is that this lack of transparency increasingly conceals large quantities of gold that was mined illegally. Martin, a local gold miner in the village of Taliwang on Sumbawa, said he has watched warily as Chinese mining operators spread in nearby communities. 'If they enter here, we can't compete,' he said. Photo / Muhammad Fadli, The Washington Post Conservative estimates place the value of the illicit gold sector at more than US$30 billion or 400 tonnes a year. A study released in 2024 by the non-profit Swissaid found that gold smuggling out of Africa doubled between 2012 and 2022. Individually, unsanctioned mines may be smaller than legal ones. But aggregated over a country, over multiple countries – 'it's a massive, massive amount', said Pete Chirico, associate director of the US Geological Survey's Florence Bascom Geoscience Centre, which provides scientific assessments of resource extraction to the US government. Once smelted, illegal gold is virtually impossible to differentiate from legal gold – and equally as valuable to the world's biggest buyer. 'If you have a strategic interest in gold, you don't want to just rely on the industrial gold-mining sector,' Chirico said. 'You're trying to mop up gold wherever it is.' 'People's mining' Lalu Adimiyat, 40, looked out the window of a muddied Toyota SUV as it bumped along the pockmarked slopes of his village in eastern Indonesia. Stepping out into blustering winds, he caught the eye of a few local men peeking out from tented shafts. He nodded stiffly and turned away. It wasn't safe to stay long, he muttered. Chinese gold-mining investors began arriving here on Lombok island, an hour's boat ride from the holiday destination of Bali, in 2022, said Lalu, a community activist. In his village of Sekotong, locals had mined small amounts of gold for years, scaling the hills on motorbikes and using hand tools to scoop out gold-mottled ores that they sold to traders in the valleys. Indonesian workers move gold ore on the island of Sumbawa, where Chinese mining operators are becoming dominant. Photo / Muhammad Fadli, The Washington Post Indonesian authorities allowed this as long as it remained small-scale, providing permits to citizens for what is called in Indonesian 'tambang rakyat', or 'people's mining'. When Chinese investors came, however, they came with excavators, crushers and pumps that stunned local miners, Lalu recalled. The Chinese built their own processing facilities at the top of hills, installing sprinkler systems to douse ore with cyanide – a chemical that local miners had never used before. They brought in towering Chinese-made mills with rollers that spun 160 times a minute. Soon, Chinese investors were moving quantities of gold in a single day that would take locals months or even years to extract, Lalu said. 'We felt defeated,' he recalled. After several clashes, hostilities boiled over in August 2024 when villagers set a dormitory for Chinese miners on fire. National authorities arrived to find one of the biggest illegal gold mines ever uncovered in Indonesia – an operation that spread across the size of 184 American football fields, producing gold with an estimated market value of US$5.5 million per month. 'I never expected that,' remembered Dian Patria, 58, who inspected the site in October. A plain-speaking, moustachioed bureaucrat in Indonesia's anti-corruption commission, Dian said he has watched Chinese illicit networks spread across Indonesia, corrupting offices from village councils to national ministries, amid a broader expansion in Chinese investment. In the country's far-flung eastern provinces, which he oversees and where mineral deposits are concentrated, the most coveted prize has been gold. 'They are robbing us,' Dian lamented from his office in Jakarta. 'Openly.' Indonesian officials say they are aware of dozens of large-scale illegal gold-mining operations on Sumbawa. Photo / Muhammad Fadli, The Washington Post In previous decades, when American companies such as Newmont dominated gold mining in Indonesia, authorities could rely partly on US and international anti-corruption regulations, such as the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention, to stave off excessive graft. Not so with Chinese operators, who face few barriers to engaging in corruption abroad, Dian said. Indonesia has stepped up efforts to find and prosecute illegal mining syndicates, earlier this year opening a law enforcement arm within its minerals ministry and increasing enforcement against cyanide smuggling rings. The bribing of officials, however, means that even when regulators believe they have found damning evidence, their superiors may not be inclined to prosecute, Dian said. Indonesian authorities have reported major illicit gold operations run by Chinese networks in at least four provinces over the past year. None have led to convictions. In one case in Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo, authorities found a mine that stretched over 1.5km and employed as many as 80 people. Chinese nationals were brought to trial but then abruptly acquitted – a decision that the Indonesian Judicial Commission later said was marred by ethical breaches and misconduct by judges. In June, one of the Chinese defendants still in Indonesia was retried and given a sentence of three years in prison and a fine of US$1.8m. Haruki Agustina, director of climate change mitigation at the Indonesian Environment Ministry, said she thought the punishment was insufficient given the mine's damage to the environment, particularly with regard to the unregulated use of cyanide. 'Way, way too low,' she said in an interview. Villagers have long fished on Lake Lebo in Taliwang. Now, they say it is becoming contaminated with chemicals like mercury and cyanide from illegal gold mines. Photo / Muhammad Fadli, The Washington Post On Lombok, internal Indonesian government documents obtained by the Post say the illegal mine in Sekotong encroached into protected forest area, and operations were carried out by three companies – two led by Chinese nationals and one by Indonesians – none of which had the requisite permits. In addition, the documents say, there are dozens more illicit mines on Lombok and its neighbouring islands that the Government is aware of. The Sekotong investigation, which was handed over to police last year, has stalled, said a senior official at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, adding that the reasons have not been shared with the ministry. The police did not respond to requests for comment. When Post reporters visited Sekotong in May, the police lines set up last year had been torn down. Trucks brimming with gold ore trundled along cliff edges, and the mines appeared operational. Lalu sucked his teeth as he raised his phone to take a video. 'No, no, no accountability,' he said. Beijing's 'plundering' In January, hundreds of people in the Democratic Republic of Congo demonstrated against what they called the 'plundering' of the country's gold by Chinese operators. Asked about the demonstrations, Guo Jiakun, a spokesperson for China's Foreign Ministry, said, 'The Chinese Government always asks Chinese citizens and companies overseas to strictly observe local laws and regulations.' Officials in gold-rich countries, however, say Beijing has done little to enforce that sentiment. Chinese authorities have been unco-operative in efforts to identify and deter Chinese nationals responsible for illicit gold mining, according to international investigators and officials in Ghana and Indonesia. Chinese authorities have also withheld data that could help quantify and track illicit gold flows, and are noticeably absent from multilateral discussions on the topic, researchers say. In May, for example, at the 2025 OECD conference on responsible mineral supply chains in Paris – widely seen as the most important annual forum on the topic – a small Chinese delegation spoke about industrial mining but did not participate in discussions on illicit flows, attendees said. In these conversations, 'China is the missing elephant in the room', said Guillaume de Brier, a researcher at the International Peace Information Service, a Belgium-based institute focused on mining in the African Great Lakes region. 'We talk about them,' he said. 'They are not there.' Futile resistance Indonesian villagers on Sumbawa have done artisanal mining for decades, using hand tools to extract and refine gold. Photo / Muhammad Fadli, The Washington Post Artisanal mining in the village of Lantung dates back decades, locals say. But large-scale mining only began three years ago, when a middle-aged Chinese man known to villagers as 'Mr Xi' began striking deals with smallholders to dig on their land. He promised compensation that did not materialise, villagers said. But attempts to protest have had little effect. Runoff from the gaping pits on the mountaintops is killing crops. Every week, it seems, cattle downstream of the mine's cyanide pools drop dead, locals say. 'Everything you see here, that hill and that hill and that one. … Everything you see that is stripped land is the Chinese,' said Sabuddin, a local villager. Wearing a long-sleeved shirt that hung loose on his scrawny frame, Sabuddin, 49, who like many Indonesians goes by only one name, stood perched on a jagged bluff. He said he did 'rakyat' mining, working with a hammer and pickax. He dug sometimes in areas like this one, which Chinese operators had excavated and then abandoned, Sabuddin said. But he had never mined for the Chinese. 'They work illegally,' he explained. 'I don't want to be involved in all that.' Yet, looking across the jungles he'd trekked through as a boy, he sometimes felt a sense of awe at the scale of the Chinese operation, he said. He pointed out a building with zinc roofs on the opposing crag – a dormitory for workers who guard the illicit mine. Even when night falls, the lights in those buildings don't turn off, he said. The crushers keep whirring; the excavators keep inching forward. Locals couldn't run an operation like this, Sabuddin said. 'No,' he continued. 'Only the Chinese.'
NZ Herald
a day ago
- NZ Herald
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown urges Government to reconsider bed night levy to reboot city's struggling economy
Bridges urged the National Party-led Government to consider serious policy or fiscal stimulus across New Zealand, especially in major cities, to help 'get things going'. The bleak state of Auckland's economy was underscored by a Herald story this month showing a 6.6% drop in card spending in the central city between April and May 2024 and the same period in 2025. The picture was even starker on Karangahape Rd, where spending plunged by 22.5%. It had been the worst winter ever, said Helen McIntryre, who has owned a gift and furniture shop on K Rd for 34 years. Brown backed Bridges' call for the Government to take stronger action to support the economy during these challenging times, noting Auckland's 6.1% unemployment rate had implications for the rest of the country. He said introducing a bed night levy would deliver immediate stimulus by boosting tourism and attracting major events to Auckland. 'There's no reason the Government couldn't make a bed night levy an urgent priority and have it in place by next year,' Brown said. 'The sector supports it and so do most Aucklanders.' Brown has been calling on the Government to approve a bed night levy for some time, but Tourism Minister Louise Upston has ruled it out, saying there would be no new taxes. Today, Upston acknowledged Bridges' comments and noted the ongoing interest in a bed tax. However, she reiterated that 'a tax is not something I'm pursuing this term'. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Tourism Minister Louise Upston are not keen on a bed night levy at this stage. Photo / Dean Purcell 'The most pressing challenge for New Zealand tourism is that we simply don't have enough visitors, and I'm focused on growing those numbers. 'This Government is firmly committed to growing the economy, including Auckland's, and tourism remains a key part of that strategy,' the minister said. So far this term, the Government has hiked the international tourism levy for visitors to New Zealand by nearly 200% from $35 to $100, and announced international tourists would be charged $20 to $40 at four popular destinations – the Tongariro Crossing, Cathedral Cove, Milford Sound and Aoraki Mt Cook. Asked about Bridges' call for a stimulus package on RNZ on Monday, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said progress would 'come through to the big cities eventually'. 'I know it's difficult – particularly in our big cities... we've got to keep doing everything we can, but open to more things and discussing more things, but I think at this stage it's keep doing what we are doing,' he said. Herald business editor-at-large Liam Dann backed Bridges' call for a stimulus package in a weekend column, arguing that Auckland's economy is 'broken' and urgently needed Government attention. Karangahape Rd shop owner Helen McIntyre says this winter has been the worst in 32 years. Photo / Jason Dorday Dann suggested the Government could allocate funding to revive three 'dead' buildings in the midtown area – St James Theatre, the vacant Smith & Caughey's building, and the Sky World indoor entertainment complex. He argued restoring these sites would breathe life back into the city and keep skilled workers employed while the broader economy recovers. Hospitality New Zealand chief executive Steve Armitage said Auckland had faced significant challenges in recent years, particularly across the hospitality, accommodation, tourism and events sectors. He supported the introduction of sustainable funding through a levy as soon as possible to create a dedicated and reliable revenue stream to promote tourism, attract major events and conferences, and stimulate spending across hotels, restaurants, retail and entertainment venues. However, rather than adopting an Auckland-only approach, Armitage said Hospitality NZ favoured a nationwide system applied fairly and consistently. A national framework would better support tourism-related activity, including the attraction and delivery of major and business events. Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown and Hospitality NZ want a bed night levy to attract more events, such as Kinky Boots at the Civic Theatre. Photo / Jason Oxenham Localised models risk creating unnecessary complexity and inconsistency, Armitage said. The mayor said that when Auckland did well, the country did well, saying NZ's underlying problem was a low-productivity economy that wasn't exporting enough to the world. His goal was for Auckland to lead the country on a path to prosperity, saying his 2025 manifesto identified key opportunities for growth in technology, housing and tourism. Recently, Brown launched the Auckland Innovation & Technology Alliance to attract investment and strengthen the city's position as a competitive hub for tech and innovation. He's also working with Housing Minister Chris Bishop to make use of land for faster and smarter growth. Employers and Manufacturers Association head of advocacy Alan McDonald told RNZ there were some signs of recovery led by the primary sector and in the regions, but in Auckland, which was more about manufacturing and services, hospitality, tourism and education were all down. Sign up to The Daily H, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
NZ Autocar
2 days ago
- NZ Autocar
2025 Chery Tiggo 4 Urban Review
Chery had a go at selling cars here a decade ago. That episode was best forgotten but the new line-up is more promising. The Tiggo 4 leads the way on value but does it have genuine appeal? More bad news arrived this month for the established Asian car brands, with the Chery Tiggo 4 now on the road in New Zealand. While Chery has been here before, its first coming is best forgotten. But it appears that the Chinese maker has come a long way since those bad old days, if the Tiggo 4 is anything to go by. This little SUV has been making waves over the ditch since going on sale there last year. It has picked up numerous awards from media outlets in the value category. And it's not hard to see why. The entry-level Tiggo 4 Urban kicks things off here for just $24,990 (plus ORCs) and a quick perusal of its specification sheet is revealing. It has walk-away auto locking, an alarm, parking sensors front and rear, a reverse camera and 17 ADAS features, including active cruise. This Urban model may have cloth trim and manually adjusted seats but it has dual 10-inch displays, CarPlay and wireless Android Auto along with dual zone A/C and a leather-bound steering wheel. There is a limited colour palette (just four) and anything other than red is dubbed premium paint (a.k.a. a cost extra). But otherwise, it doesn't feel like a real stripper. There's no sat nav, but that's something the $70k Cupra Terramar V tested this month also lacks. About the only thing we thought was an odd omission was interior lighting for the second row. That however is one of the upgrades you get when opting for the Ultimate. For its $29,990 price, Chery upgrades the alloys to 18s, you get a surround view camera, seats in fake cow with heaters and power adjustment (driver's side at least), some ambient lighting, a charge pad and sunroof. It's got turbo power Powering the Tiggo 4 is a 1.5 turbopetrol mustering 108kW while the more useful figure is the handy 210Nm it makes at 1750-4000rpm. This is sent via CVT to the front wheels. Fuel consumption is not a strong point, though it does get away with drinking 91 octane. The official figure is 7.4L/100km while our around town numbers were in the low tens. Those are more usual for a medium SUV. On a cruise control-guided trip from Auckland to Hamiltion and back, the Tiggo 4 returned 7.5. For comparison, the ASX is rated at 8.5L/100km, the Mahindra X03 at 6.5L/100km. Chery has a Tiggo 4 hybrid coming if economy is important, with a 5.4L/100km fuel use figure, though entry price starts at $32,990. Big enough? At 4.3m long and 1.8m wide, this Tiggo 4 is all but the same size as the Mitsubishi ASX. That's been trucking along here for some time now, but with prices starting at $27,990, it's a model that features in the top sellers as buyers look for value in these cost-conscious times. But its spec sheet is not as impressive as the newcomer's. The Tiggo 4 is all fairly conventional inside, and in operation too. A mix of buttons and touchpoints get things done fuss-free, while there's a voice controller too. The screens give the cabin a modern vibe and, while there are hard plastics about, the touch points (save for the edge of the console) are soft and lined. Okay, some of those plastics look and feel a bit budget, the headlining and floor coverings as well, but you have to keep that price tag in mind. There's okay adjustment at the seat (which is comfy) and though the wheel moves for both height and reach, it could extend out further for taller drivers. Outward vision is sound but the resolution of the backing camera image is grainy. While not quite as family friendly as a proper medium-SUV, the Tiggo 4 is doable for the whanau. Head and legroom in the rear is commendable for its size, entry good too. And you'll find a flattish floor for mid-row feet, a charge point and air vents. In the boot, some load length has been sacrificed for that rear legroom, but there's enough on offer for the groceries or a few shrubs. But golfers will be needing to fold the rear seat (split 60/40), converted by way of levers next to the headrests. It's not a flat area either, but you do get a spare wheel under the floor, albeit a space saver. Go okay? This Tiggo 4 suits its Urban tag. It's right-sized for the city, being easy to park and commute in. The CVT has a decent launch feel, and responds quickly to the need for added go. Thanks to the turbo bolstering the torque, this feels sufficiently quick though, as mentioned, fuel use is on the high side. The ride is good, outward vision too. The steering is one aspect that needs rethinking. It is overly light, even for city running. The steering column could be constructed of overcooked spaghetti, such is the response at highway speeds; you're often making multiple adjustments to stay on your intended line, such is the lack of sensation. Hitching things up a notch in Sport mode (accompanied by an 'it is in Sport mode' announcement), we couldn't detect much of a difference from the default Eco setting. Apart from the CVT, that seemed to get a bit livelier. But steering aside, this gets along okay. The ride is passable, it didn't crash into the big bumps, though the roll control could be improved upon. When things get too hot, the ESP snuffs it quickly before it gets out of line. While a panic stop is done rather calmly, the pedal feel is a little too spongy under foot. There's enough go for an overtake, but pick your moment for sure. Things don't get too noisy either in terms of tyre roar or engine wail, though the 1.5 does get a bit more vocal past 3000rpm. The ADAS systems in Chinese sourced machines can be more of an annoyance than an aid but the Tiggo 4's arsenal of functions actually does an alright job. The driver monitor does as intended, calling you out with a discreet ding when you do look away, but it could give you a little more slack. There's a speed limit recognition but no bonging when you do exceed it, and there are far worse offenders when it comes to lane keeping as well (but you might feel the need to switch that off too). There is an assisted drive mode for the active cruise but best deactivate that. Without it, the cruise does a good job, apart from the size of the gap it leaves. And false alerts were largely non-existent. With seven airbags (including one in between the front passengers), Tiggo 4 has a five-star ANCAP rating, something the ASX doesn't (its rating having expired in 2022). A value contender then? Yes, certainly. For those after an affordable motor in 2025, this is definitely worth a look. It's backed by Chery's seven-year unlimited kilometre warranty, has a seven-year capped price servicing scheme and up to seven years of roadside assistance as well. So far Chery has 10 dealers on board, though only one Christchurch dealer for the South Island. Chery Tiggo 4 Urban $24,990 / 7.4L/100km / 168g/km 0-100 km/h 9.56s 80-120 km/h 7.40s (208m) 100-0 km/h 37.98m Speedo error 97 at an indicated 100km/h Ambient cabin noise 72.8dB@100km/h Engine 1498cc / IL4 / T / EFI Max power 108kW@5500rpm Max torque 210Nm@1750-4000rpm Drivetrain CVT / FWD Front suspension Mac strut / swaybar Rear suspension Torsion beam Turning circle 10.6m (2.7 turns) Front brakes Ventilated discs Rear brakes Discs Stability systems ABS, ESP Safety AEB, ACC, BSM, LDW, RCTA, ALK Tyre size f/r-215/60R17 Wheelbase 2610mm L/W/H 4307 / 1825 / 1660mm Track f/r-1550mm Fuel capacity 51L Luggage capacity 380-1225L Tow rating Not rated to tow Service intervals 12months / 15,000km Warranty 7yrs / unlimited km ANCAP rating (2024) Weight (claimed) 1404kg
