I think the Jaecoo J7 takes out the award for up to this point in 2024, of being the most asked about car. Why? People just didn’t know what it was.
No doubt this is the issue that new-to-New Zealand brand Jaecoo has – getting buyers to know they exist. Along with their sister brand OMODA, Jaecoo has a bit of a mission to get their name out there.
We went to the OMODA launch in December 2023, and then the Jaecoo launch in late July. Now that Jaecoo has finally released pricing for the J7, we can give you our review on the car.
What We Like and Dislike About The Jaecoo J7 2WD
| What we like | What we don’t like |
| Price vs. features More refined than you’d think Boot capacity Remembers drive mode Performance Audio quality Not a CVT transmission | Design not for everyone Axle tramp on hard acceleration Lane departure warning system Steering wheel controls |
What’s In The Jaecoo J7 Range?
There are two models of J7, essentially 2WD or AWD:
- Jaecoo J7 EX 2WD – $37,990 (tested)
- Jaecoo J7 EX+ AWD – $43,990
Both are powered by a 1.6-litre, 4-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine that outputs 137kW of power and 275Nm of torque. There is no hybrid assistance in the J7, and a 7-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission is used across both models.
The EX+ AWD model adds 19” alloy wheels, a heads-up display, a panoramic sunroof, a heated steering wheel, and ventilated seats, among other features.
Jaecoo J7 Colour Range
There are 5 colour options for your J7. A change of colour will not cost anything extra, however if you purchase the EX+ model you will have an option for a black roof on the green, grey and silver cars – for an additional $750.
- Model Green
- Moonlight Silver
- Olive Grey
- Crystal black
- Khaki White
For a full list of specs and options available for the 2024 Jaecoo J7 EX 2WD, head on over to Jaecoo New Zealand’s website.
How Does The Jaecoo J7 2WD Compare To Its Competition?
| Make/ Model | Engine | Power/ Torque kW/Nm | Seats | Fuel L/100km | Towing Capacity | Boot Space, litres | Price |
| Hyundai Tucson Elite 2.0 2WD | 2.0-litre, 4-cylinder petrol | 115/192 | 5 | 9.0 | 750/1,650 | 539 | $54,990 |
| Toyota RAV4 GXL Hybrid | 2.5-litre, 4-cylinder petrol-hybrid | 163/221 | 5 | 5.3 | 750/1,500 | 580 | $51,990 |
| Kia Sportage Deluxe 1.6T 2WD | 1.6-litre, 4-cylinder, turbocharged petrol | 132/265 | 5 | 8.0 | 750/1,650 | 543 | $48,790 |
| MG HS Essence | 1.5-litre, 4-cylinder, turbocharged petrol | 119/250 | 5 | 7.3 | 750/1,750 | 463 | $37,990 |
| Mahindra XUV700 AX5 | 2.0-litre, 4-cylinder, turbocharged petrol | 149/380 | 5 | 8.3 | 750/1,500 | NA | $38,990 |
| Haval H6 Lux | 1.5-litre, 4-cylinder, turbocharged petrol | 150/320 | 5 | 7.4 | 750/2,000 | 600 | $38,990 |
| Jaecoo J7 2WD | 1.6-litre, 4-cylinder, turbocharged-petrol | 137/275 | 5 | 7.0 | 750/1,750 | 410 | $37,990 |
| OMODA C5 EX | 1.5-litre, 4-cylinder, turbocharged petrol | 115/230 | 5 | 6.9 | 750/2,000 | 360 | $34,990 |
Please note that DriveLife does its best to ensure the information above is correct at the time of publication, however, prices, specifications and models can change over time. Please bear that in mind when comparing models in the comparison table.
First Impressions Of The Jaecoo J7 2WD
Like its name, the Jaecoo J7 inspired quite a bit of comment on its design. I’m not sure why that is, as I quite like it. The front is bold without going full-Lexus on it, and certainly far less in your face than the OMODA C5 that we spent a couple of days with, in February.
In saying that, it does feel a little like Jaecoo has been watching what Kia and Hyundai have been up to with their designs, and then had a “hold my beer” moment. It’s not space-age like some Kia and Hyundai models are at the moment, but there is a real attempt at giving the car a unique look, rather than say the MG HS that can look like every other Japanese SUV. Those stacked headlights look particularly cool, and the pop-out door handles are a surprise at this price point, but keep the car nicely streamlined on the side view. Around the back, I love what Jaecoo has done with the tail lights, moving them right out to the sides and making them vertical. Stylish, and it also gives the J7 a bit more of a stance from the rear.
Some people really did not like the look of the front of the J7, but overall, I’d happily live with one.
What’s The Interior Like In The Jaecoo J7 2WD?
Like the OMODA C5, Jaecoo has paid close attention to details inside the J7. It all feels like a touch of luxury, with nice materials used throughout. Touchpoints too are all good; sitting in the driver’s (or any) seat means everything falls to hand and where your fingers go is to generally soft materials.
Across the dash is a padded panel and below that, an interesting piece of design work that looks like piano keys, although I am certain that wasn’t the intent. Still, its better than nothing at all but it does make for a fairly busy dashboard with lots of different angles and lines. At the ends of the dash are the air vents, finished in chrome. Plastic, yes, but still a little bit of class thrown in here.
There’s a high centre console, with a large (rubberised) storage area underneath, something that is all the rage right now. It’s practical, though, to be able to have that extra space to store stuff you don’t use often. At the front of that lower console are USB-A and USB-C sockets, as well as a 12-volt power socket. They’re a bit of a pain to get to under the console, but once a cable is plugged in, you are all go.
At the rear of the centre console is a deep cubby that includes a window-smashing hammer in case you need it (if the car is underwater) and also a removable shelf at the top of the cubby. Just in front of this but as part of the cubby is a small opening that takes a box of tissues, and these feed out through the top of the console. I’ve not seen this before and as mentioned, one of the touches that Jaecoo has added.
Speaking of storage, the glove box is pretty decent in size, and there’s a smaller flip-down cubby to the right of the steering wheel. The door pockets are decent in size too, meaning that the J7 has plenty of spaces for your road-trip paraphernalia.
At the front of the centre console is a laid-back Qi wireless charging pad; there’s actually spaces for two phones here, but only one charges. I think we can all agree that car manufacturers should just make them both charging and be done with it. We see this over and over, where there is space for two phones but only one can charge wirelessly.
Although the car is very well priced for its segment, both front seats are electric. As we’ve seen in some other Chinese (and Korean) cars, there are buttons on the front passenger’s seat so that rear-seat passengers can move the front seat back and forward, as well as adjust the backrest angle. Still not convinced of the usefulness of this, but the buttons are there if you need them. Just don’t tell your kids in the back seat about them.
Seat comfort is better than I thought it might be, and there is plenty of legroom front and rear. Headroom too is fairly generous, for all passengers. It also feels spacious, helped along by a white headliner. Weirdly, the roof console has some buttons for an electric sunroof and electric blind, but the J7 has neither of these. The buttons don’t move at all, so are just, well, there.
Opening the electric tailgate, the boot is large, measuring 410 litres with the back seats up. It’s deep too, and under the floor is a space-saver spare, with quite a bit more storage space around it, if needed. Inside the boot are three shelves to put stuff on, although I’m not sure how long things would sit on them before they went flying.
Our test car was not fitted with any mats, something I haven’t seen for the last 10 years. Jaecoo mentioned these are an optional extra.
What’s The Jaecoo J7 2WD Like To Drive?
After a run of Chinese cars like the GWM Ora GT and the MG3, one thing I wasn’t looking forward to was incessant beeping and over-zealous driver assist systems. Happily, the J7 wasn’t too bad in this department. The main issue I found as far as annoying driver assist systems was the lane departure warning; when turning right into a turn bay with an indicator on, the steering gives a sharp pull back to the left, to get you back in the lane. Since you are turning and your indicator is on, this should not happen. It would be a simple programming change to fix this, and I hope they do – it could give some drivers a bit of a fright.
That is probably my main complaint of the J7; otherwise, I had no real issues with the car, living with it for 300km of daily driving. Visibility is excellent, with large side windows all round, motorway driving is a breeze. Naturally, the car also has blind spot monitoring with warning lights on the exterior mirrors.
An added bonus (in 2024, at least) is that the car does have a rear window wiper, essential at this time of year.
One of my first positive impressions of the car is its transmission, a 7-speed dual-clutch automatic (DCT). I was fully expecting to find a CVT automatic and its inherent flaring out, making the driving experience that little bit watered down. But no, in general the gearbox is a good transmission, and it felt great to feel actual gear changes when driving. The DCT does have that common DCT issue of being slow to get into gear when reversing, or at the lights on green, but overall it’s still preferable over a CVT – for me, anyway.
Ride quality is also generally good, quite compliant, although short bumps like potholes can feel a bit harsh. Again, overall not class-leading but more than acceptable.
The huge 14.8” centre infotainment screen is of high resolution, and the menu system pretty simple – you’ll be a whiz in no time. Actually, in use, it felt almost identical to the Volvo EX30 we had just reviewed. Like many other Chinese cars, there’s a huge amount of customisation available in the system; it feels like you can change just about any setting you want to, and we applaud Jaecoo for giving the owner the power to set up the car the way they want.
One of the menu settings that I have never seen before but have been waiting so long for is the ability to have the car remember its drive mode. I’ve asked for this for many years; just have a button that says ‘remember drive mode’ so if you want the car to remember you left it in Eco mode, it does. The J7 has exactly that menu option. Thank you, Jaecoo.
Speaking of Eco mode, the car has three drive modes; Eco, Normal, and Sport. When you change the mode, a voice will tell you what mode you have chosen, and she calls Eco mode “E-C-O mode”. No idea why, but it’s a little humorous. Speaking of humorous things from a country where English is not the first language, if you are stopped say at a red light and the car in front moves off, you get a warning on the dashboard, ‘car has drived off’, lol.
I did leave the J7 in Eco mode for much of my driving; it has gallons of torque, so that 1.6-litre turbo does just fine in Eco mode. Normal mode is, well, normal, while Sport mode really amps things up. I’m not sure Sport mode is really needed as there’s plenty of performance in any mode, and you can spin the front wheels quite by accident just by pushing the gas pedal down a little too hard – it doesn’t take much. On that note, full-throttle acceleration will see quite a bit of axle tramp and banging coming from the front of the car, as it tries to get some grip down to the road. It’s not a pleasant noise – it never is – so I avoided full throttle most of the time.
Other than that axle tramp, the engine is relatively refined, and nicely quiet at most engine speeds. Wind noise too is very well taken care of, and road noise is subdued as well. This is a car that is easy to live with on a daily basis.
There is an option to switch steering feel between the ‘Mid’ option, and Sport. Mid is extremely light, and Sport only just gives any indication that the front wheels are connected to the car, so I left it in Sport for the rest of my time with the J7.
As far as handling goes in this car, it’s set to be safe. That means understeer if you push too hard on a corner, but in general driving conditions, most drivers will feel quite relaxed. It’s not made to carve corners up, but feels safe and secure, other than the axle tramp we’ve mentioned, when using full throttle.
While the J7 doesn’t have adaptive LED headlights, they are automatic, and you also have the option of automatic high beams. The lights themselves are just fine, with reasonable depth and spread.
I used the headlights often as it was the middle of winter for my testing of the J7. Along with headlights on, I often used things like the 3-stage heated seats. While these are operated by the centre screen, it’s nice that Jaecoo has added an ‘all off’ button on the screen for a one-hit to turn both seats off. While you can turn the seat heating off and on via the screen, you can also use voice control to do this. Another nice touch is that the voice assistant responds with different sayings, so it’s not just the same response every time. Hit the voice command button on the steering wheel and she says things like, “How can I help you?”, or “What can I do for you?”. That might not seem like much, but it makes it a bit more of a personal connection. You can use voice commands to do things like alter the air con, open or close all the windows etc.
Like the centre screen, the dashboard is crystal clear, with all the required info you need shown in that smallish rectangle. There are no customisation options for the dashboard, but I didn’t miss being able to change it. When using SatNav, a small map comes up on the left side of the dashboard giving you your next driving instruction. Calling it small is being a bit generous – it’s pretty tiny and hard to read. However, driving instructions are also shown on the large centre screen.
The steering wheel controls on the J7 are not my favourite feature of the car. While they are not completely flat, I still had to look down often to see what I was pressing. Haptic controls should not be on a steering wheel, but the J7 has them. They aren’t as bad as a Mercedes-Benz or Volkswagen, but are still a bit of a pain to use.
On the left side of the steering wheel are cruise control buttons. Cruise control activation in the J7 is via one of two buttons; the top-right button sets adaptive cruise to the current speed limit, while the bottom-right button sets it to your current speed. Once I worked out what each button did, it was all too easy, and I’d use either button depending on what I wanted the car to do. In use, the adaptive cruise on the J7 works just fine,
I was quite surprised at the audio quality of the Sony sound system in the J7 – it was far better than I had expected it to be. There’s good coverage of most frequencies, and separation is above average. I love that when you play a song from Bluetooth, a record player comes on the centre screen. The record is spinning and as you press the Play button, the needle swings across and onto the record. Press pause, and the needle goes back. Retro cool.
While we normally cover around 600km a week when we test a car, I only managed to get 300km of driving in the Jaecoo J7. While the car is slated to return 7.0L/100km, I managed 7.5L/100km. That’s a great result from an SUV with a 1.6-litre turbo-petrol engine.
YEAR MAKE MODEL VARIANT – Specifications
| Vehicle Type | Small-medium SUV |
| Starting Price | $37,990 |
| Price as Tested | $37,990 |
| Engine | 1.6-litre, 4-cylinder turbo-petrol |
| Power, Torque kW/Nm | 137/275 |
| Transmission | 7-speed dual-clutch automatic |
| Spare Wheel | Space Saver |
| Kerb Weight, Kg | 1,939 |
| Length x Width x Height mm | 4500x1865x1680 |
| Boot Space / Cargo Capacity, Litres (seats up/seats down) | 410/1,254 |
| Fuel tank capacity, litres | 51 |
| Fuel Economy, L/100km | Advertised Spec – Combined – 7.0 Real-World Test – Combined – 7.5 Low Usage: 0-6 / Medium Usage 6-12 / High Usage 12+ |
| Towing Capacity Kg, unbraked/braked | 750/1,750 |
| Turning circle metres | 11.2 Small: 6-10m / Medium 10-12m / Large 12m+ |
| Warranty | 7 years, unlimited km 7 years Roadside Assistance |
| Safety information | ANCAP Rating – not rated Rightcar.govt.nz – 5 Stars – QPW631 |
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