Since the establishment of GAC Toyota in 2004, they have launched a number of hot models such as camry, Yaris, Highlander, etc., and in recent years, they have added compact cars such as Ralink and Willanda, and SUVs. In the entry-level SUV segment, GAC Toyota's previous cheapest product was the C-HR, which started at 141,800. However, due to the aggressive shape of the C-HR coupe style and not in line with the traditional cognition of Chinese consumers for SUVs, the sales volume of the C-HR since its launch in 2018 has been tepid, and the level of 40,000 units per year is obviously not an excellent result for Toyota.
In such a big environment, GAC Toyota introduced a new compact SUV Fenglanda at the end of 2021, and gave a very sincere starting price of 125,800 yuan, as well as a price range of 125,800-16.98 million, making it the cheapest SUV model currently on sale in Toyota. More importantly, unlike honda XR-V and other competitors that use A0-class small car chassis, although the price of Fenglanda is very close to the people, it still uses the same TNGA-C platform as C-HR and Leiling, which is quite a bit of a dimensionality reduction attack. This can't help but be very curious, how is the 130,000 Feng Landa driving? And can it meet consumer demand for an entry-level joint venture SUV? Today I will give the answers to these questions through a test drive!
Friends who pay attention to Fenglanda should know that it is actually the domestic version of the Japanese standard Corolla Cross, and there is no magic change in the domestic production, retaining the original Japanese original design. Because of this, Feng Landa's real car looks like it can be said to be all ages, the front face is calm and not old, the large mouth grille shape and the sharp light group, and there is a hint of youthful temperament.
Top: C-HR / Bottom: Feng Lanta
Fenglanda's side shape is more traditional than C-HR, and it is more in line with chinese consumers' demands for SUVs, and the relatively straight roof line and tailgate can also bring better vision and spatial performance to the interior.
In terms of size, The Frontland is consistent with the C-HR in terms of wheelbase, but has improved in terms of length, width and height, and has a comprehensive advantage over competitor Honda XR-V at the same price. Of course, not all consumers are adhering to the concept of getting bigger when buying a car, otherwise everyone at the same price will buy the star L.
Fenglanda's rear design is relatively calm, LED taillights are the standard configuration of the whole series, the relatively straight tailgate shape can provide a larger opening and volume for the trunk, and the black surround below is matched with dark silver trims, which also effectively avoids the monotony of the rear.
It is worth mentioning that the Rim of The Frontlander is more unique, such as the sub-top model we tested, which uses 18-inch two-color rims and is equipped with a sporty, 225/50 R18 Hankook Ventus S1 evo2 SUV tires. The top and other low-to-mid-range models instead use 17-inch rims with 215/60 R17 specifications of Dunlop EC300+ silent energy-saving tires. Perhaps the official realization that the price of the top model of 169,800 is a bit high, so it simply put the 18-inch rim that looks more handsome and the tires with better performance on the sub-top model with a price of 10,000 yuan to get better sales.
In my personal point of view, as a post-90s who is about to "Ben San", the first impression of seeing FengLanda is still good, both retaining the traditional calm atmosphere of Toyota, but also has a certain youthful temperament, if you like to personality to pick some friends, you can also choose red, yellow, blue and other bright color paint, and with a black top two-color body to highlight the youth.
Pulling the car door and sitting in Feng Lanta's car, the interior style almost the same as Raling clearly told me that it was a practical, people-friendly Toyota car. For a Toyota SUV that starts at less than 130,000, everyone will not have too many expectations for its interior atmosphere, and it is simple and easy to use. As for the material, the entire center console is made of soft-lined plastic material, which is in line with Toyota's strict cost control.
The steering wheel is also the most common shape of Toyota cars in recent years, but it is puzzling that only the top model of the Fenglanda series uses a leather-coated steering wheel, and the sub-top model we test drove is still a plastic material, which is indeed a bit stingy for a car that costs 159,800.
But I have to say that although The Frontland's sculptural steering wheel gives people a very stingy feeling, looking at the steering wheel in addition to the lowest model, the standard support for full-speed domain ACC, lane keeping assist, active braking and other functions, can achieve L2 level of driving assistance TSS2.0 smart travel safety system, I will not help but praise Toyota, perhaps this is the embodiment of Toyota's car-making pragmatism.
Top: Top / Bottom: Non-top
Fenglanda's instrument is also an unpretentious style, and the top model adopts a mid-mounted 7-inch LCD screen with a left and right mechanical pointer design. The sub-top model I test drove adopts a combination of mid-mounted mechanical speedometer, left mechanical tachometer, and right 4.2-inch LCD screen, which is more mechanically attractive than the top instrument, and more clear and intuitive, while the content of the small screen on the right side is also very rich, which can display information including vehicle active safety system, four tire pressure, fuel consumption and so on.
The 9-inch central control screen above the center console, built-in Toyota's intelligent car machine system, support voice interaction, Car Networking, OTA upgrade and other functions, this is also Toyota's relatively new system, although it is not comparable to the domestic brand that plays the car machine out of the flower, but at least than the early C-HR, Leiling on the car machine to update the tide.
8-inch screen for low- to mid-range models
It should be noted that the 9-inch Car Networking screen is exclusive to the sub-top and top-end models, and the rest of the low-end models use 8-inch car-machine screens, which do not support the Internet of Vehicles, OTA, voice interaction and other functions, but have a complete mobile phone interconnection system, including Apple Carplay, Huawei HiCar, Baidu Carlife. That is to say, buy low with no internet of cars, but there is Carplay; buy high with a larger screen and Internet of Cars, but there is no Carplay...
In terms of rear configuration, Fenglanda has increased the air conditioning outlet that can effectively improve the comfort of rear passengers compared with C-HR, and also provides two advanced USB-C power interfaces, which are in line with the charging cable specifications of the latest smartphones. Overall, The interior of Fenglanda is not too fancy design, which is in line with Toyota's consistent concept of simple and practical car manufacturing.
For the Fenglanda car, whether it has stronger space practicality than the C-HR is definitely the focus of everyone's attention. In terms of riding space, after adjusting my driving posture with my 183cm height and 80kg body weight, the front head of the Front Lanta still has 4 fingers left from the lower edge of the sunroof. At this time, the back leg space is 1 punch, and the head space is 1 punch and 2 fingers. Although the rear leg space is consistent with the C-HR, due to the change in roof shape, the rear head space of the Fenglanda is nearly 1 punch more than the C-HR, and the light-colored roof of the Fenglanda with the larger rear window also makes its rear view transparent far beyond the C-HR.
In terms of riding experience, whether it is the front or rear, the comfort of the seats is very good. The surface of the seat has an extremely soft padding of 3-4cm, which has a noticeable feeling of sinking after sitting in, and the seat skeleton below can also provide sufficient support, which can effectively avoid long-distance back pain caused by the seat being too soft. In addition, the cushions and backrests of the front seats of the Front Landa are also wrapped up to a certain extent, and even if the driving is slightly intense, the driver will not produce too much shaking. The rear seats are relatively wide and thick, and also support two-speed backrest angle adjustment, and long-distance driving can lay the backrest to obtain a more relaxed sitting posture.
Thanks to the straight roof, larger dimensions and less vertical space occupied by the rear torsion beam suspension, the trunk volume of the FrontLander has been increased from 295L to 438L in C-HR, which is a full 143L increase! The lower floor height and deeper depth have greatly improved the practicality of the Frontland's trunk. However, due to the low floor of the trunk, it is not possible to form a flat space when the rear seats are lowered. In addition, the high-end model of The Frontlander also adds an electric tailgate, and supports kick opening and high memory, which is quite convenient.
In terms of power, Fenglanda did not reduce the specifications because of the price of the people, the whole series is equipped with a 2.0L naturally aspirated engine, with a D-CVT gearbox with a direct transmission function of the starting gear, and this gearbox can also simulate 10 gears to bring a better sense of subjective movement. In terms of parameters, the maximum power of the engine is 171 horsepower, the maximum torque is 205N·m, although the torque is compared to the current mainstream 1.4T, 1.5T engine often 250-300N·m output has a certain gap, but thanks to the large basic displacement, the 2.0L self-priming power feeling is still very refreshing.
In the initial stage, since the D-CVT transmission uses a gear drive instead of the steel belt of the traditional CVT, the starting feeling of the vehicle is very direct, without any feeling of dragging mud with water. What makes me doubly impressed is that the throttle adjustment of the Fenglanda does not adopt the extremely sensitive style of the early stage of the previous Japanese car, but is quite the calm and linear of the German car. With the deepening of the accelerator pedal, the power of the vehicle will also be released in a delicate and continuous manner, and how much and how much to pedal is very linear and controllable.
On the whole, this D-CVT gearbox except for the occasional frustration when the internal transmission is switched from the starting gear to the steel belt at a speed of about 20km/h, the performance of this D-CVT gearbox is impeccable in other cases. Both the sensitivity of the throttle response and the power continuity when simulating gear changes are enough to beat most of the dual-clutch, AT transmissions that are known for speed and movement.
For example, when the vehicle is cruising, the accelerator pedal is suddenly deep, and the vehicle's gearbox can also complete the "downshift" operation in an instant, pulling the speed up, and the vehicle will then accelerate forward, and the action will be smooth and silky. Although in terms of absolute power, the 2.0L Fenglanda 100-kilometer acceleration is more than 9 seconds of somatosensory level, but this kind of refreshing power response without dragging mud and water is what we can use at any time in our daily lives, after all, no one will start from the traffic light catapult every day. Therefore, compared with those who like to think about life's gearboxes and turbo delays, Fenglanda's feeling of power on call during daily driving is in line with more people's definition of "easy to open".
In terms of chassis, although Fenglanda and Leiling and C-HR are all products of the TNGA-C platform, in order to improve the trunk space and reduce costs, Fenglanda uses a rear torque beam suspension structure instead of the rear E-type multi-link of Leiling/C-HR. However, for a joint venture SUV that starts at more than 120,000 yuan, the rear torque beam is actually very common, after all, its competitor Honda XR-V also uses a torque beam.
It doesn't make sense to just look at paper parameters, but the actual experience is the key. The chassis tuning of the Frontlander is clearly biased towards home comfort and does not pursue sportsmanship too much. After a small bump, the suspension of the vehicle can easily dissolve the vibration, the car will not feel too obvious impact, the chassis action is also crisp and clean, full of toughness, and there is no fine aftershock. I have to say that the texture of TNGA's chassis is still online, and it can still give a good impression when you first get started.
However, when the vehicle encounters a higher speed bump or a large pit, although the front suspension can still maintain an elegant and comfortable state, the rear torsion beam suspension is somewhat original and will appear a little stiff. Compared with the C-HR with the rear independent suspension on the same platform, although the C-HR chassis is also a sporty style, the movement is more gentle and clean when passing through the speed bumps.
In terms of sound insulation, Fenglanda gave me some surprises, not to say how good its sound insulation is, but compared to the previous Leiling, Asiatic Lion, C-HR and other models, Although Fenglanda is more affordable to the people, but the noise performance is better than several other models, tire noise, wind noise are well suppressed, at least in the same price joint venture SUV is a good level. As for the sound of the engine accelerating sharply, although it will also be transmitted to the car, the volume will not feel as noisy as the Leiling, and the sound of the naturally aspirated engine is much more beautiful than that of the small displacement turbine.
In terms of turning to the feel, FengLanda continues the style of Leiling and C-HR, the overall damping is not light, even if it is not a light and fluttering feeling when making a U-turn at low speed, and it will gradually become heavier with the increase of speed, and it is very solid and calm when running at high speed, which can provide enough security for the driver. If you compare the TNGA Toyota, MQB Volkswagen, and Volvo Lynk & Co models, you will find that the steering of Toyota cars is getting heavier and heavier, but the steering of Volkswagen, Volvo and other models has begun to become lighter and lighter, and even give people the illusion of driving old Japanese cars.
As for the sensitivity of the body dynamics, Feng Landa is actually not how sharp. Although its steering void is very small, the angle change between the steering wheel and the front of the car is very linear, but because the chassis adjustment of this car is soft, when the driver makes a rapid and large-angle change, the suspension will bring some feeling that it cannot support the body, so that the driver has the idea of taking it slowly. Of course, all this is judged according to the way of extreme driving, as a family car that focuses on practicality and life, the dynamic performance of Fenglanda is actually not impeccable.
If you have higher requirements for fuel consumption and power, you can actually look forward to the possible future hybrid version of the Fenglanda, which will be equipped with the same 2.0L THS hybrid system as the C-HR dual engine, with a comprehensive power of 184 horsepower. For example, this hybrid system can make 8.8 seconds of 0-100km/h acceleration on C-HR, and only 4.5L/100km of the ministry of industry and information technology comprehensive fuel consumption, which is 1.3L lower than the 2.0L self-priming edge Landa.
Back to our original question, as the cheapest Toyota SUV at present, is the Fenglanda, which starts at less than 130,000, worth it? The answer is actually obvious, combined with brand, power, driving experience, quality reputation and other aspects, Fenglanda is definitely worthy of its pricing. Although the interior is not very advanced, there is no fancy trendy configuration, but the Fenglanda is still remarkable in terms of safety configuration, driver assistance system, basic seat comfort, convenience design, etc., which is also the essence of Toyota.
In addition, Fenglanda has also filled the gap in Toyota's market for practical style SUVs under 150,000 prices for many years, which is also the highest price range for SUV sales in China, such as its rival Honda Binzhi /XR-V brothers, who can sell more than 300,000 new cars every year. As for pricing, the most worthwhile version of Fenglanda at present is actually the deluxe version with a guidance price of 149,800, and if there is another 10,000 or so discounts in the terminal in the future, it can be said that it is very tempting. Of course, I believe that many friends will say that the price of 150,000 is also a very competitive product such as Geely Xingyue L. But for many consumers, the car can even be classified as a minus, because many people want to be small, flexible and easy to drive, and it is convenient to park in the daily city. In addition, the premium ability of the brand itself is also what many people care about, which is why many joint venture brands still insist on launching entry-level products.