I wrote to you recently about the recently released Haval H6 – The Empire Strikes back – where I gave my opinion on how far the Chinese Manufacturer Great Wall Motors has come since first appearing on the market in 2009. Great Wall Steed replaces Great Wall X200
And I also wrote about the ANCAP rating given to the subject of this review – The Great Wall Steed. In that missive, I suggested that both Great Wall Motor and Ford Motor Company should be ashamed of the outcome of ANCAP testing which gave both cars a 2 Star Rating. Since that ANCAP release, Ford Mustang has been declared the best-selling sports car in May 2017 and number one for the last 18 months. Not too shabby for a vehicle arguably described as a death trap. So should the Great Wall Steed have received something similar or is ANCAP just being too tough? If you view the ANCAP test of the Steed, you’ll be cautious I buying one. So to convince myself one way or another I asked to test drive a Steed and the nice people from Great Wall Motors presented a dual cab 4WD in a manual for to assess.
There are a couple of things about the Steed that I found perplexing to start.
Reversing camera – My personal opinion and of those who drive back into things is that EVERY vehicle on the market in the country should have a camera. Ever vehicle should also have reversing sensors – (take note Mr. Mazda – a recently reviewed MX-5 RF didn’t have them either)
Door Opening To open the doors when you stop, without turning the engine off, you need to pull on the door lock or door open button. In most cars that I drive or have driven, pulling on the driver’s door handle opens the driver’s door and the other doors too – acts as central unlocking
Turbo Lag – Great Wall Steed isn’t on its own when it comes to turbo lag. My Volkswagen Amarok was guilty of this problem. And having driven and sold some Great Wall X200 and V240’s over the last 12 months seems that great Wall Motors have not learned any lessons. Turbo Lag, to explain to non-car people is when you’re in first gear ready to move and on depressing the accelerator pedal – everything happens slowly. If you’re driving off from a stop light, car park or similar it’s very disconcerting. Is there a solution? Yes, there is, and it is not expensive. A product called a Pedal Torque, well it does something that eliminates turbo lag – asks the engine computer to deliver more fuel than it programmed into it from the factory. Mr. Great Wall – you need to do something about this NOW. Unloaded it’s annoying but when you’ve got a load in the back, it is downright dangerous.
So apart from the ANCAP 2 Star Rating, let’s do our usual six-positon walk around looking for Features Advantages and Benefits as it relates to the consumer.
Front and Under Bonnet
Steed is a fairly attractive vehicle from the front. Lots of chrome looking plastic for the grille, daytime driving lights, and colour-coded bumpers just
makes Great Wall Steed look very modern. When you’re under the bonnet, Steed comes with atypical crumple zone architecture. Disappointing is the 2.0-litre turbocharged engine. It only produces 110 kilowatts and is underpowered compared to another vehicle in this class. The six-speed manual transmission is smooth and accommodating though I’d love to see an automatic option available – perhaps sooner than later.
Side and Safety
Again the side of the Steed is pretty typical of most others in the 1-tonne dual cab utility market. Indicators on the folding mirrors (on demand) good size side steps, roof rails, and 16” Alloy Wheels. I’m not convinced that the door handles are state of the art, but they’re similar to the Haval H6 I reviewed recently. From the Great Wall Steed specification sheet it has:
Front, Side, and Side Curtain Air Bags are standard across the range, while Bosche Electronic Stability Program is also standard incorporating integrated anti-lock braking (ABS) Electronic Brake Force Distribution (EBD) Traction Control, and Hill Hold.
Hill hold is interesting in a manual vehicle. It doesn’t auto brake the vehicle but holds it long enough to enable you to take off without rolling back.
Rear
Standard with a rear step bumper, the Steed also has a tub liner as standard. Unfortunately, the owner isn’t getting a full size Aussie pallet in the back but there are 4 tie down points, so that’s a plus. The tail gate height, in the down position is at a comfortable height and you won’t struggle to get heavier loads in the back.
Towing
Towing is 750kg un-braked, 2000kg with trailer brakes and a tow ball download weight of 200kg. Payload is 1010kg. Gross Combined Mass (GCM) for vehicle and trailer is not stated, but we understand the Steed is capable of its full payload while towing, similar to Mitsubishi. Not the best towing capacity for anyone thinking of a larger van or boar, but acceptable for a tradesperson wanting to tow a double axle trailer
Drivers Side
Entry to the rear seats of the Great Wall Steed is quite acceptable. You’re not however going to get 3 burly subbies into the rear seat, perhaps 2 and a young apprentice. Lap Sash belts are standard
Driver Position
I was quite happy with the driver’s seat comfort and the tech available. I was able to get comfortable on the faux leather seats, the leather steering wheel was easy to hold and whilst it had adjustment up and down, there was no reach adjustment. I wasn’t expecting that in this vehicle. Again, a useful feature was the fold in mirrors, which would enable the Steed to get into tighter places.
Fuel Economy: 9.0 litres per 100 km
Air Pollution Standard: Euro 5
This ANCAP test was conducted on a two wheel drive vehicle. This review is on a 4WD Steed, however, we believe that the test results would have been the same.
Airbags: Dual Frontal, Side, Head
Frontal Offset 8.30 out of 16
Side Impact 16 out of 16
Pole Not assessed
Whiplash Protection Marginal
Pedestrian Protections Not assessed
Electronic Stability Control Standard
Seatbelt Reminders 2 out of 3
Overall Score 16.49 out of 37
Car Business uses a percentage to assess the ANCAP score – in this case, Steed scores 44.57% which is not good at all. Primarily, the low score is because of the frontal offset score of 8.3.
Pricing
It’s June and as with other manufacturers, Great Wall is offering competitive drive away pricing. After June 30th, best check with your local dealer for their offers.
Steed Dual Cab Petrol 4 x 2 6 Speed Manual $24990 drive away
Diesel Option $26990 drive away
Steed Dual Cab Diesel 4 x 4 6 Speed Manual $29990 drive away
Prices indicated are for Queensland registered vehicles. Check with the dealer in your state for your particular prices.
Warranty/Service/Capped Price Service
Warranty is 3 years/100,000k. Diesel sServicingis every 15,000 km or 12 months after the initial 5000 km service. There is no capped-price scheme, but current pricing schedule is –
5000k $395 15000k $563 30000k $731
45000k $765 60000k $731 75000k $1050
90000k $881 105000k $615
Given the relative newness of this vehicle by Great Wall Motors and the history surrounding their vehicles, I would have thought that they’d offer a 5 ye5-yearranty and a capped price service program. The service prices quoted, whilst not that expensive, are higher than other manufacturers and might drive buyers to aftermarket service centres
Insurance
Generally, we use the RACQ online portal to estimate insurance costs. We’re looking at a male rating 1 driver, with no accident or traffic history over the last 5 years. We’ve used postcode 4019. On this occasion we couldn’t get an online quote, so we used Budget Direct instead.
Insurance Estimate was $429 per annum, a bit less than I expected
Summary
The all-new Great Wall Steed is fairly good for a ute buyer on a budget. It does everything that a tradie would need, but it just doesn’t do it well enough to compare to the industry big guns like Toyota, Ford or Mitsubishi. From a safety viewpoint and despite the ANCAP 2 Star Rating, it’s a reasonably safe vehicle in my opinion. At $30k drive-away for a 4WD Diesel Dual Cab, you may want to give it a go if you’re tight on $$. Most of Steed’s competitors come in at about $10,000 more and also have an auto option.
I reckon that Great Wall Steed will do well for the likes of Road Construction companies, where the vehicles sit most of their time on the roadside. It won’t be considered by the larger mining companies, government bodies because of the 2-star rating. Great Wall Motors commented that they were surprised that Steed didn’t get a 4-star rating and that comment, in my opinion, suggests that Great Wall needs to pay close attention to world safety standards rather than what they can get away with in China. Build it to a standard rather than just adding things to achieve that standard.
Vehicle Supplied by Great Wall Motors – Available from Performax Great Wall North Lakes
