Chery Tiggo 7 Pro Ultimate review 2024: Worth the money?

After a rocky first stint in Australian showrooms – marked by poor safety scores and an asbestos recall – Chinese car maker Chery has returned after an eight-year absence.

The brand relaunched in Australia last year with the Omoda 5 small SUV, and it has followed it up with the Tiggo 7 Pro, a small to mid-size SUV that Chery says rivals the Toyota RAV4, Mazda CX-5, Hyundai Tucson, Kia Sportage and other top sellers.

It is sharply priced compared to Japanese and South Korean offerings, well equipped, and comes with a seven-year warranty.

Is it good enough to compete with the best in the class? Let’s find out.

There are three models in the Chery Tiggo 7 Pro range, all with nationwide drive-away pricing: the base-model front-wheel-drive Urban from $39,990, front-wheel-drive Elite from $41,990, and flagship all-wheel-drive Ultimate from $45,990.

We are testing the Ultimate in this review, which with the two-tone red and black paint on our test vehicle comes to $47,190 drive-away.

It is a sharp price for a top-of-the-range, all-wheel-drive (AWD) SUV in this category, as similar money gets entry-level or middle-of-the-range versions of Japanese and South Korean rivals, many front-wheel drive (FWD) and lacking the surety of AWD traction.

Rivals include (estimated drive-away prices listed are calculated on each manufacturer’s website for a buyer in Sydney, unless stated otherwise):

However, compared to rival top-of-the-range mid-size SUVs from China – which are larger on the outside and, in some areas, are better equipped – the Chery is not as competitively priced as it should be.

A GWM Haval H6 Ultra all-wheel drive costs $42,990 drive-away nationally – with a front-wheel-drive hybrid model available for $45,990 drive-away, with lower fuel consumption – while a more powerful MG HS Essence X AWD also costs $42,990 drive-away.

Features exclusive to the Ultimate grade in the Tiggo 7 Pro range include 19-inch alloy wheels, red front brake calipers, memory functions for the driver’s seat and side mirrors, an auto-dimming rear-view mirror, ventilated front seat bases, and Snow, Mud and Off-Road drive modes.

Equipment shared with cheaper models includes LED headlights and tail-lights, dual 12.3-inch screens, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, satellite navigation, an eight-speaker Sony stereo, synthetic leather-look upholstery, power-adjustable heated front seats, dual-zone climate control, panoramic sunroof, wireless phone charging, 360-degree camera, power tailgate, front and rear parking sensors, and a full suite of advanced safety technology.

Curious about the long name? Here’s the backstory. The first Chery SUV sold in Australia 10 years ago was called the J11 here, but it was known as the Tiggo in China.

At a later date – when Chery decided to expand its SUV range – Tiggo was switched from a single model name to a sub-brand, where all Chery SUVs would be called Tiggo, followed by a number to denote their size.

The Tiggo 7 was introduced in China in 2020, and became the Tiggo 7 Plus in China – or Tiggo 7 Pro in export markets – to denote an updated model launched in 2021. As the range grows Chery will next add the Tiggo 8 Pro Max seven-seater, but also has smaller and larger Tiggo 3, Toggo 5, and Tiggo 9 models available in its home market.

The Chery Tiggo 7 Pro’s interior makes a good first impression, with two large screens, white piping on the standard synthetic leather-look seats, soft-touch materials on the dashboard and door tops, and a mix of gloss black, metallic and carbon-fibre-look accents.

The six-way power-adjustable front seats are reasonably comfortable, though they are a touch flat, and lacking in side and underthigh support, particularly for long-legged drivers.

In this Ultimate model, the backrests and bases of the front seats are heated, but only the seat base is ventilated – an unusual miss given it is an occupant’s back that typically gets hot and sweaty first, particularly on fake ‘leather’ that doesn’t breathe as well as the real deal.

The steering column offers tilt and reach adjustment, but we found setting the wheel too low tends to block the top of the instrument display – and positioning it too high feels like driving a bus unless the seat is raised considerably to compensate.

The driving position provides a good view of the road – and visibility is good – though long-legged front occupants may find the centre console infringes on knee room.

There are some unusual quirks in the Chery’s cabin. The design of the gear shifter is confusing – as manual shifting mode is activated with a button on the side, and is finicky to operate – while the wide angle of the rear-view mirror makes it look like cars behind are constantly tailgating.

Perceived build quality was good in our test vehicle, and there were soft-touch, leather-look materials in key areas. The panoramic sunroof is an Ultimate exclusive.

Amenities up front include one USB-A port (for Apple CarPlay/Android Auto and device charging), one USB-C port (for device charging only), a 12-volt socket, ambient interior lighting, wireless phone charging, keyless entry and start, and dual-zone climate control.

The centre console storage compartment is reasonable, but the glovebox is small, and the door pockets will struggle to fit larger bottles. There are two cupholders in the centre console area.

The Tiggo 7 Pro is classified as a mid-size SUV, but at 4513mm bumper to bumper it is only fractionally longer than some small SUVs, such as the Subaru Crosstrek and Haval Jolion – and is about 15cm shorter nose to tail than a Nissan X-Trail or Kia Sportage.

As a result, it is not the roomiest vehicle in the class for rear-seat passengers, but even for my 186cm (6ft 1in) frame sitting behind my driving position – which is admittedly closer to the steering wheel than most – there is decent knee room.

Head room is excellent thanks to the Tiggo’s upright body, toe room is reasonable, and there is enough space across the rear bench to seat three passengers in moderate comfort. However, more under-thigh support would be welcome, the seatback is firm and quite upright, and visibility out of the windscreen is limited by the sports-style front seats.

Rear passengers have access to a fold-down centre armrest with two cupholders, map pockets on each front seatback, and rear air vents. There is only one USB port – of the older USB-A standard – and the door pockets are quite small.

One clever detail: the door exit warning to notify rear passengers of a cyclist or car approaching the car from behind is communicated through LED rings around the speaker grilles that illuminate orange.

Boot space is quoted as 626 litres, which would appear to be one of the largest in the mid-size SUV class. However, it is measured to the roof, not the top of the rear seatbacks, as is convention.

The cargo area – accessed through a power tailgate – offers enough space for a full-size suitcase with the luggage cover in place, plus two bag hooks, a 12-volt socket, and illumination. The rear seats fold 60:40 for up to 1672L of room, and there is a full-size spare wheel under the floor, an increasingly rare feature in this class.

While the Chery Tiggo 7 Pro’s interior is relatively spacious for its size – and it has space for five occupants – there is a devil hiding in the detail: the maximum payload.

The Chery Tiggo 7 Pro Ultimate AWD is said to weigh 1601kg ‘tare’ – without passengers, fuel and any fluids such as coolant, water and engine oil – but its gross vehicle mass (GVM), which is the maximum permissible weight of the vehicle when fully loaded with passengers, cargo, fuel, accessories and engine fluids, is just 1984kg.

It means you have just 384kg to work with before the vehicle exceeds its GVM, and becomes illegal to drive on the road – which could result in heavy fines, or leave the driver liable in an accident if the vehicle is proven to have been overweight.

Adding 45kg for a full 57-litre tank of fuel, it leaves less than 340kg to apportion across passengers and cargo.

Loading the vehicle with an adult male and adult female – assuming the Australian averages of 87kg and 71.8kg – plus two teenagers weighing 60kg each, and 20kg of cargo, the Chery is only 40kg from its maximum gross vehicle mass. We’ve contacted Chery for more information about the low GVM, and will update this review once we hear back.

Standard in the Tiggo 7 Pro is a 12.3-inch infotainment touchscreen and 12.3-inch digital instrument display, which sit side-by-side in a single black panel.

The infotainment screen includes wireless and wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, embedded satellite navigation (oddly branded as ‘TurboDog’), a ‘Hello Chery’ voice assistant, and AM and FM radio, but no DAB+ digital radio support.

We found the wired Apple CarPlay connection to be more reliable than the wireless link.

While the display is bright, it is not as responsive as we’d like, and it often requires a firm press – or multiple presses – on the screen to complete the desired action, which is frustrating and takes the driver’s eyes off the road for longer than needed.

There is a row of touch-sensitive shortcuts below the screens for key climate-control functions, such as fan speed and air temperature, but these also need a firm press to work.

When activated, they bring up a climate-control menu on the screen to register the change, which takes up the entire display and hides any other content on the screen, such as navigation directions.

There is a voice assistant activated by saying ‘Hello Chery’, which works with simple commands such as ‘open the sunroof’ or ‘set the temperature to 20 degrees’, but it gets confused if you combine the two.

The quality of the rear-view and 360-degree cameras are average, if not exceptional – with a nifty 3D view – and the eight-speaker Sony sound system is acceptable, but again not outstanding despite wearing name branding.

The 12.3-inch digital instrument display is clear and offers reasonable customisation – with the ability to show a full-screen navigation map – though it’s not the fastest to respond of its kind that we’ve tested in this category.

Chery does not offer support for companion apps to lock/unlock the car, or activate the air conditioning from your phone.

The Chery Tiggo 7 Pro is covered by a five-star safety rating from the Australasian New Car Assessment Program, tested last year to the latest criteria in force from 2023 to 2025.

It earned scores of 88 per cent for adult occupant protection, 87 per cent for child occupant protection, 72 per cent for vulnerable road user protection (pedestrian, cyclists and motorcyclists) and 86 per cent for safety assist technology.

The score is due to expire in December 2029, in line with the six-year validity of new ANCAP ratings.

The list of safety features in the Chery Tiggo 7 Pro brochure is long, and includes all the features we expect in this class in 2024.

These include forward autonomous emergency braking (AEB) with pedestrian/cyclist/motorcycle detection and junction support, lane-keep assist, lane-centring assist, adaptive cruise control, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert with braking, door exit warning, low-speed rear AEB, driver monitoring, traffic sign recognition, and a speed limiter.

There are eight airbags – including one for the driver’s knee, and another between the front seats to prevent occupants’ heads clashing in a side impact – plus front and rear parking sensors, and a 360-degree camera with front, rear and 3D views.

Some of the systems worked well: there were no false activations of the AEB technology, and blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert were not overly sensitive.

However, more work is needed on the tuning of the lane support and driver monitoring systems.

The lane-keep assist was not intrusive most of the time – because most of the time it couldn’t detect the lane markings.

Even in broad daylight on well-marked roads – the Sydney Harbour Bridge, for example – and the system set to high sensitivity through the touchscreen, the lane-keep assist would not activate, and the icon denoting its status on the dashboard was white (turned on but not active) not green (active and working).

Oddly, the car would detect the white lines when lane-centring assist – known as Intelligent Cruise Assist – was engaged, but turn this tech off and it would suddenly lose the lane markings.

One of the few roads the lane-keep assist did register was one that did not have any white lines, rather a black expansion joint roughly following the centre of the road – which the car thought was a marked white centre line.

However, because the expansion joint is not quite in the middle of the road, when travelling in one of the two directions we found ourselves fighting the lane-keep assist to stop it steering the car into parked vehicles.

The lane-centring assist is not the smoothest system we have tested, often getting far too close to walls in tunnels – and bollards dividing lanes on major roads – than we’d like, and with a habit of gently bouncing between the white lines, rather than sticking to the centre.

Its most frustrating behaviour is a tendency to constantly disengage and re-engage for no reason, even on a well-marked road that is close to straight.

It is particularly disconcerting when it occurs just before a turn and the driver hasn’t noticed – which can create a moment of panic as the car doesn’t turn with the lane as expected, and the driver needs to quickly apply more steering input to avoid leaving the lane.

There is an option to have the car alert the driver when the lane-centring assist disengages. We switched this on to see if it helped, and it did its job: beeping at the driver, and flashing a warning on the dashboard (‘Intelligent Cruise Assist Exited’) when the lane-centring assist disengages.

However, it would disconnect and beep so many times – sometimes only a few seconds apart – we turned the alert back off, and soon stopped using lane-centring assist entirely because it was so difficult to trust.

The speed-sign recognition system has a feature that beeps at the driver when they exceed the speed limit the car has detected. However, this was turned off when we collected the car – and given our frustrations at the constant beeping and inaccuracies of similar systems in Hyundai and Kia cars, we left it off in our time with the Tiggo.

The advanced safety system that annoyed us the most was the driver attention monitor. At times it worked as you would expect, reminding the driver to keep their eyes on the road when they’ve been looking at the infotainment screen for too long.

But it would often beep at us to look at the road when our eyes were already focused on the road. This occurred in a mix of light conditions – broad daylight to a dark evening – and even without wearing sunglasses.

The system can be switched off, but it reactivates every time the car is turned back on. A driver distraction monitor that actively distracts the driver – by beeping, and flashing a warning on the dashboard they need to take their eyes off the road to look at – completely misses the mark in our books.

We hope Chery takes on feedback from media – not just Drive, and not just about the Tiggo 7 Pro – and customers in Australia on these systems, and fast-tracks improvements.

The Chery Tiggo 7 Pro is covered by a seven-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty, with 12 months of free roadside assistance, which can be extended each year until the end of the warranty if the vehicle is serviced at a Chery dealer.

Services are scheduled every 12 months or 15,000km, whichever comes first, and total $840 over three years/45,000km or $1400 over five years/75,000km.

It is one of the cheaper vehicles in the mid-size SUV category to service. Over five years/75,000km a Haval H6 AWD is said to cost $1760, a Kia Sportage 2.0-litre petrol costs $2295, a Mazda CX-5 G25 AWD costs $2114, and over five years/50,000km an MG HS AWD costs $2200.

Among the only cars cheaper are the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid ($1300 over five years/75,000km for a front-wheel-drive version) and Honda CR-V ($995 over five years/50,000km).

A year of comprehensive insurance coverage from a leading provider costs $1725, based on a comparative quote for a 35-year-old male driver living in Chatswood, NSW. Insurance estimates may vary based on your location, driving history, and personal circumstances.

The same insurance quote calculator returns $1766 for a Haval H6 Ultra AWD petrol, or $1585 for a Mazda CX-5 G25 Maxx Sport AWD.

Chery claims the Tiggo 7 Pro will consume 10.1 litres per 100 kilometres of fuel in urban driving, 6.6L/100km in extra-urban driving, and 7.8L/100km in mixed conditions.

Over a week of testing – comprised of about 60 per cent city driving, and 40 per cent higher-speed suburban roads and highways – we recorded fuel consumption of about 11L/100km, which is high given the size of the car and engine, and it’s not like we were driving with a heavy right foot, either.

On the highway we rarely saw the fuel-economy readout fall below 8.0L/100km, while in slow-speed traffic it displayed as high as 12.5 to 13L/100km.

Cross-checking the fuel economy displayed on the dashboard with the petrol bowser found the trip computer to be accurate, within an acceptable margin of error of one or two per cent.

Chery mandates more expensive premium petrol – meaning 95 or 98 octane – rather than 91-octane regular unleaded, or E10 (also branded as 94 octane).

The Chery Tiggo 7 Pro Ultimate is powered by a 1.6-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine with 137kW and 275Nm, matched with a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission and all-wheel drive.

The engine’s outputs are par for the medium SUV class, and there is enough punch to accelerate to highway speeds – though it is far from the most powerful car in the class. Chery claims 0–100km/h acceleration in 9.9 seconds, about 1.5 seconds slower than we’ve recorded from a 2.5-litre front-wheel-drive Nissan X-Trail.

While the engine works well at a cruise, there is noticeable turbo lag at low speeds – which does not mix well with hesitation from the dual-clutch transmission.

Accelerating from a standstill, the Tiggo initially feels sluggish until 2000rpm (or about 25km/h), when the turbocharger spins up and the car surges forward – as if the driver has pressed the nitrous ‘boost’ button in a car-racing video game.

The smoother you are on the accelerator pedal, the less extreme the lag gets, but it cannot be avoided completely and – in conjunction with firm pedals, which require more physical effort to push than rival SUVs – makes the car difficult to drive smoothly in traffic.

The transmission is relatively quick to upshift on the move, but it can be slow to downshift if the driver calls for rapid acceleration. The hill-hold assist prevents the car from rolling back if accelerating from a standstill on a steep hill – a typical dual-clutch gearbox trait – but it doesn’t activate on small inclines, which results in some rollback, including when parking.

There is further room for improvement in the tuning of the suspension. In our view, cars with the best ride quality are supple enough to iron out sharp bumps in the road – such as expansion joints, speed bumps and potholes – but remain composed over undulations at high speed, without wallowing or feeling uncontrolled.

We found the opposite on the Greater Sydney roads we used to test this Chery. It felt taut over potholes, expansion joints and road imperfections – transmitting more of rough roads into the cabin than it should – but it did not feel as settled and ‘tied down’ as we’d like over undulating country roads at high speed, and there were a fair amount of pitch and dive motions over speed bumps.

The suspension is not a deal-breaker, and buyers may be able to get used to it over time, but it is a confusing balance of feeling too firm when it should be soft and supple, and too soft when it should be controlled and composed.

Chery says it is considering local tuning of the suspension to suit Australian roads, following in the wheel tracks of Hyundai and Kia.

The steering is quick – at about 2.5 turns lock to lock – and light for easy manoeuvring at low speeds, but it is not the most confidence-inspiring at high speeds.

On a winding road, there is some body roll in corners, and the Cooper tyres are not the grippiest in this category, but this is not designed to be a sports car. Buyers who enjoy driving will be better served by a Mazda CX-5 or more expensive Volkswagen Tiguan or Cupra Formentor.

There is some tyre roar on coarse-chip road surfaces – although not an excessive amount – but there is noticeable wind noise from the large mirrors at 110km/h, which is far less evident at 80km/h or even 100km/h.

The LED headlights provide reasonable illumination, without being the best in the class.

One (admittedly less significant) attribute that got on our nerves in our time with the car is the annoying sound the indicators make. We weren’t sure initially how to describe it – until a passenger likened it to the sound effect played during game shows while a contestant is thinking of their answer.

And some trivia: this engine produces 147kW/290Nm in versions sold overseas, which is why there is a ‘290T’ badge on the tailgate. For some reason, Chery didn’t remove this for cars coming to Australia, which have 275Nm.

With a seven-year warranty and affordable servicing costs, the Chery Tiggo 7 Pro shapes up on paper as a worthy contender in the mid-size SUV segment.

The cabin and boot are surprisingly spacious given the car’s footprint, and buyers need to spend a lot more to get this level of standard equipment in a Toyota, Hyundai, Kia or Mazda.

But what a similarly priced Nissan X-Trail, Kia Sportage or Toyota RAV4 lacks in equipment and showroom appeal, it makes up for in refinement and polish that make the task of day-to-day driving easier.

The engine and transmission combination in the Tiggo 7 Pro should be smoother, the suspension is busy around town yet not as composed as it ought to be on the open road, and refinement is needed on the tuning of the advanced safety systems, which in their current state work against, not with the driver.

The low payload and gross vehicle mass (GVM) also present a concern for families planning to use all five seats – and load up the boot.

And while the Tiggo 7 Pro is sharply priced against Japanese and South Korean competitors, other rivals from China offer more metal and equipment for the money – nor is the Chery particularly fuel-efficient in the real world.

If your heart is still set on a Chery Tiggo 7 Pro, take one for a long test drive to find out if it is suitable for you.

Unless you really need all-wheel drive, we think the base-model Urban presents the best value in the Tiggo 7 Pro range. The features it lacks – such as a power tailgate and 360-degree camera – are nice to have, but not essential items in our view, and it costs $6000 less at $39,990 drive-away.

Chery Australia says it has stock of the Tiggo 7 Pro in dealers, with no wait time. Click here to find your nearest Chery showrooms, or check out Drive.com.au/cars-for-sale to jump straight to Chery cars listed for sale by dealers.

Before signing on the dotted line, we recommend test-driving the GWM Haval H6, as it is similarly priced and equipped, as well as comparably priced versions of the Toyota RAV4, Hyundai Tucson, Kia Sportage and Nissan X-Trail, which aren’t as well equipped as the Chery or Haval, but are nicer to drive and have better-calibrated safety technology.

To stay up to date with everything that’s happened to this car since this review was published, click here to read our Chery Tiggo 7 Pro news page.