Remarkable value for money
THE hulking Haval H9 offers remarkable value for money for those willing to take a punt on a little-known brand. It's a massive luxurious 4x4 with real presence. The 8.0-inch touchscreen is very crisp and easy to use also really organised in terms of button layout. There's integrated sat-nav, the Bluetooth re-paired quickly, and there are some very interesting submenus showing stuff such as wheel torque ratio, elevation, battery voltage and trailer angle to make life easier while towing.
Its interior is really rather impressive, includes the 1.2m-long opening glass roof, the 'eco-leather' seats with heating, massaging and ventilation up front, the heated steering wheel, and the multi-coloured LED light piping scattered about, notably above the rear-view mirror. and the giant red 'Haval' light signature projected onto the pavement, from below the side mirrors, just like high end exotic cars.
There's plenty of seat adjustment up front, rake/reach movement in the steering column, and a slick new TFT instrument cluster with digital speedo.
The middle (heated!) seat row has plenty of room for two adults, regardless the middle seat is surprisingly spacious.
Amenities include USB and 12V points, rear air vents in the roof with separate rear temperature controls, damped grabhandles, decent door pockets, a flip-down armrest, ISOFIX anchors, and seats that slide and recline.
A single push of a button near the seat base slides and tilts the split-folding bench in one motion (the smaller portion is on the right-hand side) to reveal the third row. Entry is helped by a third-row grab handle to pull yourself in, while rearmost passengers have their own vents and cup holders, and sufficient head room for anyone below 180cm.
The other crucial element to any prospective family hauler alongside space and equipment is safety. Which this has a lot of. Standard fare includes six airbags, including curtains covering three rows, front/rear sensors, a reversing camera, blind-spot monitoring (BLIS), lane-departure warning (LDW), tyre pressure monitor and rear cross-traffic alert. One of the more impressive elements to the H9 is its off-road ability. This is no soft-roader. It's got a Borg Warner TOD transfer case, low-range gearing, a 700mm wading depth, 206mm of clearance, hill-descent control, and a system called All-Terrain Control that lets you cycle through six driving modes.
These include an auto set-up that sends torque to the front wheels on demand, the sport mode tells the transmission to hold lower gears longer to sharpen rolling throttle response, 4L is low-range, and various sand/snow/mud modes that set the ESC to suit each surface type. Peak power is up from 160kW to 180kW, and maximum torque grows from 324Nm to 350Nm from the previous generation H9.