Chery Omoda 5 v Haval Jolion 2023 Comparison

The 2023 Chery Omoda 5 EX and Haval Jolion S line up very close on price at $35,990 and $36,990 drive-away respectively. And that affordability is a core reason for their appeal.

The EX is the more expensive of two models in the Chery Omoda 5 line-up, while only the Ultra hybrid is a more expensive Jolion.

Logical opposition includes entry-level models in the Honda HR-V, Hyundai Kona, Kia Seltos, Mazda CX-30, Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross, Nissan QASHQAI, Skoda Kamiq, SsangYong Tivoli, Subaru Crosstrek, Toyota C-HR and Toyota Corolla Cross line-ups.

Only the MG ZS and ZST, Mitsubishi ASX and Suzuki Vitara really undercut them on price.

The pricing is good for the 2023 Chery Omoda 5 EX and Haval Jolion S, and the equipment level is pretty decent too.

First off, they’ve both done decent and different jobs of exterior styling. The Chery is sleeker and more dramatic, but the Jolion’s more conservative SUV shape has its own appeal.

They both come with keyless entry and remote opening operation off the fob, 18-inch alloy wheels (and temporary spares) and a power sunroof – panoramic in the Haval – while the Omoda 5 alone gets puddle lamps and the Haval has privacy glass.

The Omoda 5 alone includes a power tailgate and adds some zest with red-painted brake callipers. The Jolion S dresses up with black pack styling of the wheels, mirror caps, roof rails, side garnish and bumpers.

In each cabin you’ll find push-button start, an electric park brake, artificial leather seats and steering wheel trim, dual-zone climate control with rear vents and a luggage cover for the boot.

The driver’s seat in both cars gets six-way power adjustment, while the Omoda 5 front seat passenger gets four-way power adjustment. The Haval offers manual adjustment for the front passenger. The front seats and steering wheel are heated in both cars.

The Omoda 5 goes further with a cool box (it’s huge) and ambient interior lighting.

Both cars come with excellent seven-year/unlimited-kilometre warranties, to which the Chery adds seven years of roadside assistance and the Haval five years.

Service intervals are 12 months and a short 10,000km for the Omoda 5, and its capped-price servicing fee per visit averages $298.08 for the first seven visits.

The Jolion S has its first service at 12 months/10,000km, but it then settles into a potentially more wallet-friendly 12-month/15,000km schedule. The average cost per service under Haval’s capped-price regimen is $310 for the first five visits.

The 2023 Chery Omoda 5 EX and Haval Jolion S both have maximum five-star ANCAP ratings based on 2022 protocols.

They also come with dual front, front-side, front-centre and curtain airbags, plus a suite of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).

The ADAS includes front and rear autonomous emergency braking (AEB), adaptive cruise control, lane keeping, centring, departure, warning and change assist, blind spot detection, driver monitoring and traffic sign recognition.

The trouble is – as you will read in more depth further along – the theoretical capability of much of this ADAS is compromised by poor tuning that means many people will want to turn it off.

It’s an issue (not just for these two vehicles) that ANCAP has acknowledged and is hurrying a testing update out for in 2024.

Both cars also include LED headlights and 360-degree cameras with see-through tech added in the Chery. They also get front and rear parking sensors.

Both also have three top tether child seat anchors and two ISOFIX mounts.

The Haval alone has a three-mode head-up display in front of the driver to help keep eyes on the road.

The presentation of the 2023 Chery Omoda 5 EX and Haval Jolion S is modern and quite techno inside.

Both have tuneable digital instrument panels in front of the driver and digital infotainment touch-screens on the dashboard.

The Chery keeps it all even by having two 10.25-inch screens, while the Haval opts for a 12.3-inch touch-screen and a 7.0-inch cluster.

Neither car incorporates satellite navigation, which makes their compatibility with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto a necessity. It’s wired in the Haval and wired or wireless in the Chery.

Both cars also come with wireless smartphone charging, Bluetooth, AM/FM radio (but no digital radio) and three USB points.

The Omoda 5 pumps out sound via an eight-speaker Sony system while the Jolion S has a six-speaker Harman Kardon set-up.

Both the 2023 Chery Omoda 5 EX and Haval Jolion S come powered by 1.5-litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder engines.

The Chery’s engine makes 108kW at 5500rpm and 210Nm of torque at 1750-4000rpm. The Haval offers a more impressive 130kW at 5500-6000rpm and 270Nm between 1500-4000rpm.

These engines drive the front wheels via a continuously variable transmission (CVT) with nine steps in the Omoda 5 EX and a seven-speed dual-clutch auto transmission (DCT) in the Jolion S.

Manual changes are made by a more orthodox selector in the case of the Chery. Because the Haval has a dial selector, it uses flappy paddles mounted on the steering wheel for manual operation.

The 2023 Chery Omoda 5 EX’s power and torque disadvantage compared to the Haval Jolion S is theoretically countered by its claimed fuel economy advantage.

The Omoda 5 averages 6.9L/100km according to ADR testing, while the Jolion S records 7.5L/100km. Both vehicles are tuned to run on regular 91 RON fuel. Neither car comes with a fuel-saving stop-start function.

In the real world on-test, the Chery blew out to 8.6L/100km and the Haval climbed to 8.5L/100km. Theoretical advantage gone.

The Omoda 5 has a 51-litre fuel tank and the Jolion S a 55-litre tank that equates to safe range between refuels for both of them of about 500km.

The 2023 Chery Omoda 5 EX and Haval Jolion S are dispiriting cars to drive.

Based on their specifications, they appear to be quite orthodox and straight-forward small SUVs.

With its dual-clutch transmission and multi-link rather than torsion beam rear suspension, the Jolion S even seems a bit of a sophisticate.

But the fact is they simply don’t gel into anything appealing when you trade the spec sheet for reality behind the steering wheel.

The Jolion S suffers from a combination of turbo lag and DCT reluctance that varies in intensity from noticeable to unacceptable. There were times on test when a press of the throttle was rewarded with literally no response for a palpable amount of time.

Once up and going the engine proves itself a bit hoarse and agricultural although not lacking for oomph.

This powertrain recalcitrance is allied with an unyielding chassis set-up that makes for a stiff and uncomfortable ride, especially at low speeds.

The Chery is at the other end of the spectrum, set up so softly and so under-damped it lacks substantive body control. On test, it pogoed down a lumpy road and body rolled excessively in corners.

That’s accompanied by light steering with little feel (the Jolion’s steering has more weight and accuracy).

Our test Omoda 5 had a very soft brake pedal and a very aggressive accelerator response at tip-in. At least turbo lag wasn’t an issue. Instead, strong initial response trailed off quite quickly as the throttle percentage rose.

The Omoda 5 isn’t as easy to see out of as the Jolion because of its curvier style and it also has a weird fish-eye rear-view mirror that makes following traffic look closer than it really is.

Compounding all this in both cars is the rampant binging and bonging of hyperactive lane keeping and driver monitoring systems.

It doesn’t help that lane keeping, especially in the Chery, is poorly tuned, sometimes reading the road, sometimes not and sometimes over-reacting to a non-existent threat. It’s accompanied by an often inaccurate graphic that takes over the instrument panel to show where traffic is allegedly placed on the road.

If it’s all too intrusive – and for most people it will be – then the good news is they are switchable systems. But sadly, they do reactivate every time the ignition is cycled, requiring the driver to navigate into the touch-screen to switch them off again.

The driving bottom line with these cars is this: They’ll do the basic commuting and transportation job and that’s about it. Don’t go looking for character and refinement here.

Step into the cabin of the 2023 Chery Omoda 5 EX or the Haval Jolion S and its likely you are going to be impressed. Like the exteriors, there’s been some good work put into presentation.

There’s an obvious amount of tech, a reasonable amount of soft trims and materials and a general feeling you’re getting plenty of bang for your buck.

That’s especially the case in the Chery with its dual screens and the sloping Tesla-like centre console split between a phone charger and a rest for the key fob.

The Chery also sparks things up with a variety of metal-look, gloss black and faux leather in the trim, sports front seats that do a better job of supporting the occupant despite their soft cushioning, and a flat-bottomed steering wheel that adjusts for rake and reach. The Jolion lets itself down by only adjusting for rake.

While both cars have three tuneable views for their respective instrument panel, the Chery is the only one that can offer a traditional two-dial tacho and speedo view. It’s handy for a petrol-powered car.

The Omoda 5 also retains hard buttons on the centre stack for volume and climate control, whereas you have to dive into the Jolion’s touch-screen to adjust those functions and seat heating. Voice recognition is superior in the Chery.

That said, the Chery’s USB plugs are located unhelpfully below the centre console on the passenger side, and the way the lidded bin fouls the front seats when being opened and closed is a worry.

And if you are down low in either cabin you’ll notice the decent materials quality evident higher up in both cabins has given way to some pretty low-rent plastics.

Both SUVs also had noticeable rattles despite having low kilometres on the odometer. Hopefully not an indication of quality issues.

The Jolion does a better job of releasing storage space in the cabin, partly because of its rotary gear dial. But it does feel weird to operate, because it has no hard stops to define where drive and reverse are and just spins endlessly.

The Jolion’s a longer vehicle overall at 4472mm versus 4400mm for the Omoda 5 and that definitely plays out in the back seat where it is more spacious. To the Chery’s credit though, headroom is better than the sloping roof might at first suggest.

The panoramic sunroof also helps make the space feel bright and airy during the day.

The Haval also has the bigger boot, measuring up at 430 litres with row two in place and 1133 litres with it split-folded. The Chery’s numbers are 360 litres and 1075 litres respectively.

If your heart is set on a new car and your budget tops out at around $37,000 then the 2023 Chery Omoda 5 EX and Haval Jolion S are two of your narrowing range of options.

And head-to-head it’s the Omoda 5 that just edges out the Jolion.

But they are both frustratingly poor in the way they are calibrated and how they drive. The Chery also has dreadful driver assist systems and the Haval’s screens are needlessly complex to interact with.

Switching off the incessant bings and bongs each time you get in either car is enough to send you batty!

Until Chery and GWM-Haval actually take the undoubtedly impressive pieces of tech they have in these cars and meld them into a cohesive whole, you’re better off spending your $36,000 on a used Japanese or Korean SUV.

2023 Chery Omoda 5 EX at a glance:
Price: $35,990 (drive-away)
Available: Now
Engine: 1.5-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol
Output: 108kW/210Nm
Transmission: Continuously variable automatic
Fuel: 6.9L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 164g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Five-star (ANCAP 2022)

2023 Haval Jolion S at a glance:
Price: $36,990 (drive-away)
Available: Now
Engine: 1.5-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol
Output: 130kW/270Nm
Transmission: Seven-speed dual-clutch automatic
Fuel: 7.5L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 174g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Five-star (ANCAP 2022)