Foton Tunland 2014 Review

That China is an industrial powerhouse is old news. Yet the Chinese automotive brands are by no means established players in Australia, and the most recent of them to land here is Foton.

The re-introduction of the Foton Tunland single-cab 4x4 ute has had its price paired back to $24,990 drive-away (a reduction of $3000), so it has become more in line with key opposition such as the Great Wall V200 single-cab ($22,990 drive-away), Mahindra Genio ($23,490 drive-away) and Tata Xenon ($23,990 drive-away).

The established competitors cost a lot more: to get into an equivalent single-cab diesel HiLux, for example, costs $35,490, a D22 Navara $33,490 and a Ford Ranger $38,390. And that’s before you add the extra costs of a tray and on-road fees.

The towing capacity is 2500kg and payload 1015kg — not as good as the front-runners in the class but within the ballpark — while the standard features list is fairly comprehensive for the small asking price.

Power windows and mirrors, anti-lock brakes with electronic brake-force distribution, dual front airbags, air-conditioning, cruise control and Bluetooth audio/phone are among them. Missing are safety features such as electronic stability control and side airbags.

Like the SsangYong Musso that was ‘powered by Mercedes-Benz’, Foton drags out the impressive list of Western brand names that supplied components for its ute — from their Chinese factories, of course.

Cummins Diesel supplies the engine, Getrag the gearbox and Dana the differentials. If only the leather-wrapped steering wheel and gearlever were by Prada or Gucci, that’d cap it off nicely.

We may as well deal with the elephant in the room now -- the lack of quality with some Chinese vehicles. The Foton’s exterior panels all line up well and the alloy tray appears to be well put together. Only the plastic chrome grille and nasty, cheap looking wheel covers ruin the effect, but in the scheme of things these are minor issues.

Inside, the good news continues. The plastics do not look soviet-grade and everything lines up well. It all looks pretty good, too, except the fake woodgrain paneling on the dash and doors is a bit much and some shiny components like the dashboard binnacle bring the overall impressive tone down a notch.

The cloth seats are supportive and comfortable though, and the dash cluster is simple and effective. Steering is height but not reach adjustable and a nice touch is the steering wheel buttons for cruise control and audio.

Fire up the clattery 2.8-litre diesel and it settles into a relatively smooth (and once warmed up) quiet idle. The engine doesn’t boast the big power/torque numbers of some of its (much more expensive) opposition, but it also has a well-sorted power delivery not beleaguered by turbo lag -- a problem many other turbo-diesel utes have.

It isn’t the quickest ute out there, but it certainly is flexible and responsive. Backing up the decent engine is a very slick gearbox -- it’d have to be one of the best shifters in the ute market.

The steering is pretty direct and the suspension is clearly a load-carrying set-up so it can’t be described as smooth -- yet it is not as bad as some utes are in blotting out bumps.

The ute performed well in a mix of urban and interurban driving; the only thing of note was that the wheels seemed to have a balance problem. As soon as the speedo ticked past 110km/h the steering wheel began to shake.

Fuel consumption averaged an indicated 8.9L/100km, which is not a bad figure given we weren’t driving for economy.

Off-road the Foton has the basic requirements to do well; an inner-guard sourced air-intake, alternator not set too low, good underbody protection with nothing vulnerable hanging low and a good set of low-ratio gears.

The only issue with the Foton’s off-road ability concerns its electronic actuation of 4WD high- and low-ratios seems very slow.

The Foton Tunland looks and feels cheaper than the mid-$30,000 utes, but $10K cheaper? That’s a hard call to make.

It’s impossible to say what durability problems this ute may or may not have in the longer term, but on this first glance this is not by any means a bad ute.

Foton Tunland Single Cab 4x4 pricing and specifications:
Price: $24,990 (including on-road costs)
Engine: 2.8-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel
Output: 120kW/360Nm
Transmission: Five-speed manual
Fuel: 8.3L/100km (ADR combined)
CO2: N/A
Safety rating: Single-cab not tested