Geely Coolray Test Drive
Swedish turbo engine, preselective robot, two displays, remote start and Porsche-style keys - what surprised the Chinese crossover of the Belarusian assembly
The Chinese coronavirus has seriously impacted the auto industry and has thwarted a number of new car launches. It's not only about the cancellation of car dealerships and premieres - even local presentations were under threat, and the test of the new Geely Coolray crossover had to be hastily moved from Berlin to St. Petersburg.
However, the replacement turned out to be quite adequate, because the organizers managed to find enough creative spaces in the city and the region, quite suitable for Coolray. The premise is simple: the new crossover is intended for a youth audience who must appreciate the unusual style of the model, a cheerful interior, high-quality electronics and quite modern technology. With this set, Coolray is the complete opposite of the utilitarian Hyundai Creta and will clearly pull back from the promising and equally creative Kia Seltos.
Fifteen years of evolution of Chinese models have left in Russia none of the brands that once touched our market, and today the Geely and Haval brands are arguing for the conditional leadership in the market. At the end of last year, Haval took over the lead, but neither brand still had a modern model in the most popular segment of the low-cost crossover market. That is why the Chinese make a special bet on the brand new Geely Coolray, not hesitating to sell it almost more expensive than Creta.
When asked whether the Chinese have learned how to make high-quality and modern cars, Geely Coolray responds with quite a decent style with a set of design elements that traditional manufacturers rarely decide on. Coolray has interesting diode optics, two-tone paintwork, a "hanging" roof and a whole bunch of volumetric elements from complex radiator lining to intricate plastic side panels. The only thing that seems superfluous here is that the bumper's throat is too large and the lurid spoiler of the fifth door - a feature of the upper "sports" configuration.
The interior came out not only design, but also quite comfortable. The emphasis is on the driver, and the passenger is even symbolically separated by a grasping handle. The steering wheel is truncated at the bottom, the seats are with strong lateral support, and a colorful display with very decent graphics is installed in front of your eyes. Another one is on the console, and the graphics here are also beyond praise, and it works quickly. There is no navigation, and from the mobile interfaces only its own, which allows you to mirror the phone screen, although you cannot do this with a snap of your fingers.
Another nice thing is the touch-sensitive transmission selector made of cold aluminum. The row of buttons in the Porsche style is a little touching, but in terms of the set of functions everything is serious here: the hill descent assistant, the power plant mode switches, the all-round (!) View camera key and the automatic valet driver, which has more modes than, for example, Volkswagen's analog.
But what is most impressive is not the kit itself, but how it is all done. Not only do the materials do not cause rejection and do not smell, they are perfectly fitted, and the colors are pleasing to the eye. After starting off, it turns out that Coolray also has good noise insulation and is very comfortable to drive up to speeds at which it is already forbidden to move even on highways.
This is not to say that there is a sense of school in the chassis settings, because Coolray is full of compromises on this issue. Suspension comfort ends on more tangible bumps, although the chassis does not rattle on them and does not try to fall apart. Controllability leaves even more questions: if everything is fine on the straight line, then when trying to actively drive in corners, the driver loses the feeling of the car, and the steering wheel does not give adequate feedback.
Turning on the sport mode changes the beautiful picture of the instruments into an even more beautiful one and inflates the steering wheel with a very dense effort, but it looks more like just a decrease in the performance of an electric booster. There is nothing really sporty about the car's behavior, which is a bit disappointing against the backdrop of a very decent powertrain.
The Coolray crossover inherited a three-cylinder engine from Volvo, but there are no jokes here: 1,5 liters, 150 liters. with. (instead of the Swedish 170 hp) and a seven-speed "robot" with two clutches. The recoil from the unit is fast, the character is almost explosive, and the dynamics at the level of 8 s to "hundreds" in this segment is almost never found. The "robot" understands well and quickly switches in almost any of the modes, except for the cork mode: there are barely noticeable jerks at the start, but it is quite possible to live with them.
The only thing that Geely Coolray lacks in order to fully perform in the crossover segment is all-wheel drive, which does not seem superfluous for a car with a declared ground clearance of 196 millimeters. Its absence looks even stranger at the price of 1,5 million rubles, which is asked for the top version of Coolray, although Hyundai Creta has a drive for all four at the same cost.
Another thing is that Coolray not only looks many times brighter and more modern, but also offers a more serious set of equipment. At the car for 1 rubles. there are keyless entry and remote engine start systems, heated front and rear seats, washer nozzles and parts of the windshield, a blind zone control function, cruise control and a single-zone climate control system. The car is also equipped with a panoramic roof with a sunroof, an automatic parking system, a touch-sensitive media system and a customizable instrument display.
If you abandon the sports environment, you can save 50 thousand rubles. A simpler version under the name Luxury costs 1 rubles, but it will have less equipment, simpler decoration and dial gauges. In the future, an even more affordable basic version is expected, which will appear later. So far, one can only assume that the price of the initial car will be a little over a million rubles, which is quite comparable to the simple configurations of the Hyundai Creta.
| A type | Crossover |
| Dimensions (length / width / height), mm | 4330/1800/1609 |
| Wheelbase, mm | 2600 |
| Ground clearance, mm | 196 |
| Cargo space, l | 330 |
| Curb weight, kg | 1340 |
| engine's type | R3, gasoline, turbo |
| Working volume, cubic meters cm | 1477 |
| Max. power, l. with. (at rpm) | 150 at 5500 |
| Max. cool. moment, Nm (at rpm) | 255 at 1500-4000 |
| Drive type, transmission | Front, 7-st. RCP |
| Max. speed km / h | 190 |
| Acceleration from 0 to 100 km / h, s | 8,4 |
| Fuel consumption, l / 100 km (mixture) | 6,1 |
| Price from, USD | 16900 |
