This new family-focused Chery Tiggo 7 Pro incidentally costs the same as Proton’s top-tier X70.
Following on from its local preview earlier this year and amid what certainly felt more like a music festival than a launch event, Chery Malaysia has recently proudly announced the official local arrival of its Tiggo 7 Pro SUV.
This is to be the fourth Chery to enter the Malaysian market since its brand (re)entry but a year prior, with this latest offering from the Chinese automaker landing locally as a direct challenger to the Proton X70. And this point really could not be made any more clear from its one locally-assembled variant bearing a price tag of RM 123,800, which is virtually identical to the top-spec Flagship trim of the aforementioned Sino-Malaysian SUV.
What more too is that in an attempt to further coax buyers away from placing a deposit with Proton, Chery has been quite gung-ho about offering a rather comprehensive aftersales package as well with the Tiggo 7 Pro. This includes a 7 year/150,000 km warranty, a 7 year/150,000 km 24/7 unlimited towing service as well as a 5 year free service deal (free labour charge for 5 alternate service).
Just for the first 2,000 customers as well, Chery is currently slashing another RM 4,000 off that RM 123,800 sticker price, to see the Tiggo 7 Pro cost only RM 119,800!
Now discussing the car itself in more detail for a bit here, the Tiggo 7 Pro is almost identical size-wise to the X70 by coming in at 4,513 mm in length, 1,862 in width, 1,696 mm in height, with a wheelbase of 2,670 mm and a ground clearance of 175 mm. Its boot meanwhile can hold a decent 475 litres, with it being expandable to 1,672 litres with the rear seats folded.
Up front on the Tiggo 7 Pro are slim LED headlights with sequential indicators flanking a large hexagonal chromed grille, while its daytime running lights are found further down below those striking blue strakes that mimic air inlets. Its X70-esque side profile in turn is highlighted by red brake calipers peeking out from behind its shiny alloys, as well as a floating roof that is accentuated by an upswept kink aft of its C-pillar, with its rump then finished off by a full width LED light bar.
The Tiggo 7 Pro will be offered in four colour combinations locally: Bloodstone Red with Black Roof, Carbon Black, Vanilla Blue and Khaki White with Black Roof.
As for what powers this SUV, driving its front wheels through a 7-speed wet dual clutch transmission is a new (for Malaysia at least) 1.6-litre turbocharged petrol four-pot, which outputs a healthy 197 PS and 290 Nm of torque. Chery has highlighted previously that the Tiggo 7 Pro is capable of completing the century sprint in a reasonably spritely 9.5 seconds and only tops out at 205 km/h, but what most of its target buyers will likely be more interested in is its claimed fuel efficiency figure of 7 litres/100 km (14.3 km/l).
Likewise, most buyers of this Tiggo 7 Pro will likely be more interested in knowing that this mid-sized SUV comes jam-packed with no less than 16 active driver aids as part of Chery’s ADAS 2.5 suite. And this being a Chinese car as well, it should really go without saying already that there is to be a similarly long list of mod-cons stuffed within its cabin too.
Among the more noteworthy bits of kit that Chery wishes to highlight within the Tiggo 7 Pro is its twin 12.3-inch displays for its digital instrument cluster and central infotainment screen (with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto integration), and wireless 50 W ultra-fast charging pad with built-in active cooling system. This SUV also features a configurable 64 colour ambient lighting system with a mode that responds to the music being played from the 8-speaker Sony sound system, as well as panoramic sunroof and ventilation for its electrically adjustable front seats.
Incidentally, the Tiggo 7 line was to be one of Chery’s best-selling model last year, with over 200,000 examples sold international. And given the frankly great value for money this SUV currently brings to the table over here, it now just remains to be seen whether Malaysia will be contributing at least a five-figure sum to its global sales tally for this coming year.
