Tow Vehicles

So on Friday afternoon I was finished at lunch time and had a few hours to kill…

And with a new GWM dealership opening in Clarkson I thought it timely to drop in and take a look at the new Cannon Alpha Hybrid that has been making news lately. We tow a Jayco Silverline so we need a reasonably strong car to do that kind of work. Previous GWM utes have only had 3 tonne towing and a low 120kw output.

My Ranger had finally escaped the Ford Dealership after 3 return trips to sort out an oil leak – an oil leak that didn’t exist prior to its 45k service. I brought it home and it leaked… I took it back and they replaced the trans gasket, I took it home and it leaked again… This time they looked closer and found a hairline fracture in the transmission casing. It required a whole new transmission! After 2 weeks of waiting for the bozos in warranty repairs to sign off it was another week to send and fit the transmission. When asked for a ‘review’ of their performance on this matter I could only answer ‘woeful’ and I hope I never have to go thru that process again.

Admittedly I did get a hire car for the duration of the warranty claim, but the absence of any urgency (two weeks to say yes – prompted by 5 phone calls from me each one increasingly gnarly) and the lack of communication was utterly deplorable. If you weren’t willing to push you would probably still be waiting today for an approval… Time to lift your warranty game Ford Australia.

But yes, right next door is the GWM dealership. And yes – they are Chinese – and yes – over the years Great Wall have had a less than stellar reputation. But Hyundai and Kia all started here too, didn’t they?

So I figured I’d drop in and take a drive of the new ute. I found one on the lot and opened it up for a squiz inside. It was pretty impressive, both from a looks point of view and from a techy gizmo view too. It looked stunning!

So after doing the necessary paperwork I hopped in with the sales guy and hit the road. First thing I noticed was it’s size. Getting out of the dealership meant being very careful, especially with the hybrid motor wanting to keep driving you forward. Once on the road it drove nicely, accelerated well and felt solid. The sales guy messed with the various screen controls – even turning on seat massaging… while I just focused on staying on the road and feeling it out.

We did a quick spin up the freeway and back to the shop. My immediate thoughts.

• Yeah I’d consider buying one over the Ranger next time – but probably not the petrol hybrid. The fuel economy isn’t great without towing and imagine 3 tonnes of caravan would double the 10/100 to 20/100 pretty quickly.
• The luxury feel is what struck me. It felt like Landcruiser quality but in a GWM price range. I like tech toys and gadgets so the ventilated seats were great, wireless charging and electric seats etc.
• The driving ‘assist’ features were intrusive – very – and it would be a pain to switch them off constantly. Maybe you learn to ignore them, but I see this has been a common complaint with this vehicle. Too much nagware! Not sure I could swallow more of this. A big detractor for me.
• The split tailgate… yeah whatever. It is clever but it looks an asymmetrical bum-crack and I’m not that keen on it.
• The choices are Lux, Ultra or Hybrid. The Lux has the highest payload – around 800kg while the others are both high 700’s. The Ranger is 980, so it would mean a drop in carrying capacity.
• The GVM and GCM are both good numbers at 3310 and 6555 so there is certainly opportunity to tow something and these units have the 3.5 T towing capacity – even if legally you can’t actually pull that off
• A concern for me was the lack of after market accessories. I need a canopy of some sort so I couldn’t buy one straight away as there were no canopies available. Perhaps a tray type canopy could work? Even then I’m not sure if there are any trays available. No tonneau cover or any way of securing the rear makes them a liability in the short term
• How would they tow? Good question… With 135kw they aren’t top of the range by any means, so it would be a step down from the Ranger power into a unit that would need to work harder.
• Why buy one? Simply because they are amazing value for money. A whole lot of car for $50xK and a 7 year warranty to go with it. No other ute comes close to them for value.
• Why resist? Resale won’t be as high, they are a little untested in this arena and the lack of after-market fruit available at this stage means they have limited appeal. The lower payload in the Alpha Hybrid is also worth noting (784kg)

But when you have spent a month wrangling with Ford just to get your 2 year old car back under warranty other avenues begin to look appealing. Give it another year or two to source the after market goodies and I will be looking seriously at these guys. By then the Ranger will have done 80 something Ks and will be ready to trade.