Due to the late start of the domestic automobile industry, independent brand models have been unpopular with the Chinese people for a long time. However, with the advancement of science and technology, the strength of independent brand car companies has also been greatly improved, especially in the SUV models in the price range of 100,000-200,000, including Great Wall, Changan, Geely and other independent brands have launched many very cost-effective SUV models, such as Haval H6, Changan CS75 series are at the forefront of the sales list all year round. However, the model we test drove today, although it may not be as famous as the Haval H6 in terms of fame, but since its launch at the end of July last year, the car has achieved sales of over 10,000 in August with a strong reputation, which is from Geely Automobile's "China Star" high-end series model - Geely Star L.
Gilly Star Cross L
When I first saw the car, I was amazed by the appearance and size of the car. Although it is a new car launched by Geely, but in the appearance of the shape can clearly see a lot of Volvo's shadow, the car adopts Geely's new 4.0 family design language, a large area of straight waterfall grille makes the car look very imposing, the grille on both sides of the relatively flat LED headlight group extends to the fender nearby, in order to improve the visual width of the vehicle at the same time, but also let the shape of the headlights more sharp, the two rib lines on the engine cover also make the car's sense of strength highlighted. The rear of the car is more simple, and the through taillights above effectively enhance the car's recognition at night. Under the rear is the same simple rear surround, and the hidden bilateral double exhaust pipe design also makes the car look more low-key. In terms of body size, the car has a length and width of 4770mm/1895mm/1689mm, and the wheelbase has reached 2845mm, both the body size and wheelbase have exceeded some of the joint venture medium-sized SUV models, and Geely has defined the car as a compact SUV, which is a bit of a dimensionality reduction blow.
Not only is the appearance good,000,The interior of the Geely Star L also has a cross-level performance. After opening the door, the biggest highlight is the three screens composed of a full LCD dashboard, a central control multimedia touch screen, and a co-pilot entertainment screen, and the use of the triple screen not only brings a strong sense of technology to the car, but also provides a variety of entertainment choices for the co-pilot passengers during the journey. In addition, the car has also put a lot of effort into the interior design, white and brown double and emerald green two colors make the car interior look high-end, while The Star Yue L uses a lot of soft materials and leather in the car, basically all the places you can reach in daily life are covered with soft materials, and the touch is also very comfortable.
Geely Star Yue L interior
For a car, only a good static performance is not enough, after all, the car is used to drive, not just to see, and the three major pieces of the Hoshikoshi L with the appearance of "Wori Woqi" are also at the same level as the Volvo XC60, so its driving experience is also very much looking forward to. This time, we test-drove a 2.0TD DCT EVO two-wheel drive flagship Hoshikoshi L, and also selected a 5,000 yuan Jade Feather Phantom suit, and the addition of suede material further increased the comfort of the ride. The car's driver's seat supports power seat memory, the seat automatically adjusts to the driver's most habitual driving position when the door is opened, and when the car is turned off to open the door, the seat automatically moves backwards, providing more room to get off. And such a small detail can appear on a domestic SUV that costs less than 170,000 yuan, which really brings me a lot of surprises, which also makes my first impression of the car before the test drive.
Emerald Feathers Set Interior
Although it is a home-oriented SUV model, we still tested the acceleration and braking performance of the car. In the current climate conditions (outdoor temperature 8 °C), the car achieved a 7.8s 100 km acceleration performance, which is even faster than the official claim of 7.9 s 0.1 s, this result is definitely not bad for a vehicle weight of 1.67 tons SUV model, and the high-power engine of the four-wheel drive version is said to be able to run within 7 seconds, this performance is good enough for an SUV of less than 200,000 yuan, and some higher prices, 100 km acceleration "low" Compared to the 12-second joint venture SUV, it is a world of difference.
In terms of braking, we conducted 5 100km/h-0 brake stop tests for this car, and the average of 5 times was 36.76 meters, of which the best result was 35.84 meters, even the worst result was still 37.22 meters, and the maximum fluctuation of the 5 tests was only 1.4 meters, and there was no obvious thermal attenuation. To achieve such results, I think the biggest contributor is the Goodyear high-performance tires it is equipped with, its grip and ordinary tires, there is indeed a perceptible improvement, and the price of a single more than 1,000 yuan can also be seen that Geely has invested enough money on the car.
Geely Star crosses L rear space
The above tests reflect that the Star Etsu L has the ultimate performance of the same price point, but I believe more people pay attention to what kind of daily driving situation the car has. First of all, in addition to the situation that sometimes has a setback at low speed, the performance in other aspects such as power response, steering feel, chassis support, and NVH in the car ranks first in the same class.
First of all, in terms of power response, although the car is equipped with a low-power version of the Volvo Drive-E series 2.0T turbocharged engine, the maximum power is also 218 horsepower, coupled with Geely's more mature tuning for this 7-speed dual clutch, so it can bring faster response speed when accelerating sharply, and there will be no power lag. However, when the vehicle passes through the congested road section that requires frequent start and stop, when the car is shifted in gears 1 and 2, the vehicle will have a "click" feeling of frustration, and the gearbox can also feel some shaking, which may be related to Geely's tuning of the gearbox in the low-speed state. And in the steering wheel steering feel, Hoshikoshi L provides a total of three steering modes: lady, standard and type male, corresponding to light, medium and heavy three kinds of steering force, the boundary between the three kinds of steering force is still relatively obvious, as far as my own driving experience is concerned, the feel in the standard mode has been able to meet the daily driving control, and in the lady mode, even if the girl with little strength does not have the situation of not being able to move the steering wheel. At the same time, the speed gain of the steering wheel is also good, the low speed is light and the high speed is calm, and the gain amplitude with speed is also relatively linear, which can bring a strong sense of security when driving at high speed.
In terms of chassis, Xingyue L adopts Volvo's CMA architecture, which is also the same as the second-tier luxury brand XC60, so the chassis quality of the car does not have to worry. The car uses the suspension of the front McPherson and the rear multi-link, but in terms of tuning, it is more inclined to sport control, so the overall performance of the suspension will be relatively hard, and there will be a more obvious perception in the car when passing through the speed bump or similar higher grooves. However, fortunately, the rebound at the moment of the lower kan is more crisp, and there will be no excessive shaking, avoiding excess vibration in the car. Compared with those models with soft tuning, Hoshigoshi L will indeed have more obvious road collapse, but the suspension is not without benefits, that is, it can bring a more stable feeling when driving at medium and high speeds, and it can have a better body posture when cornering or emergency braking at high speeds, and there will be no obvious roll or nod.
In terms of body tranquility, Hoshigoshi L adopts active noise reduction technology on high-end models, and also adopts double-layer soundproof glass, which can filter out some external noise to a large extent. Measured in the ordinary urban road driving process, the noise from the front powertrain and the lower tires are very small, only some noise is transmitted from the rear tires or chassis to the front driving position, but it will not cause any discomfort. In high-speed driving, due to the relationship between SUV models, the wind noise will be slightly larger than that of low and medium speeds, but it is still well controlled compared to the same level of SUV models, within the acceptable range. If you are more sensitive to noise, you can turn on the music in the car, with the blessing of 10 Bose speakers, just turn up the volume slightly, you can completely cover up the external noise, bringing immersive stereoscopic music enjoyment.
Star-cross L
Next, let's talk about the intelligent driving aspect that major manufacturers are emphasizing at present. The Hoshigoku L mid-range and high-end models are equipped with a full set of L2-level assisted driving systems, including ACC cruise control and LDWS lane departure warning. In the actual driving process, the addition of ACC adaptive cruise makes daily driving more convenient, but may be in safety considerations, when driving in the city congested road, when opening the ACC automatic follow-up car will maintain a large distance from the front car, it is easy to be blocked by the side vehicle, it is recommended that Geely can reduce the distance between the car in the later OTA upgrade, otherwise it will have to switch back to manual control when blocking traffic. However, Geely's set of auxiliary driving has a good job, that is, after opening the auxiliary driving, even if you artificially take over the control, it will not be forced to exit the system like many models that contain auxiliary driving, it will still be retained in the background, and when your artificial control is over, continue to restore the auxiliary driving function without needing to start and set again, effectively reducing the operation steps.
At the end of the test drive, we also counted the fuel consumption performance during driving. Overall, the car's fuel consumption performance still brought us a surprise, after testing, the car in the urban + ring line conditions under the condition of 100 kilometers of fuel consumption of 8.3 liters, as a 2.0 displacement of domestic SUV is indeed not high, but it should be noted that because of the Use of Volvo engine, so the car needs to add No. 95 gasoline, compared to the same price model of No. 92 gasoline, per liter is about fifty cents more expensive. However, the total cost of the car is not much different from other models at the same price.
Xingyue L center control large screen and co-pilot entertainment screen
After this test drive, the biggest feeling for me is that with the development of independent brand car companies, the product strength of its models is also increasing at a speed visible to the naked eye. Especially in the field of SUVs, the sales of domestic brands are also constantly improving, whether it is the domestic SUV "forever god" Haval H6, or the Changan main model CS75 series, or today's test drive of the Geely Xingyue L, all have their own main selling points and super high cost performance. With the improvement of domestic consumption level, independent brands have also begun to launch their own high-end series models, both the Wei brand and tank of the Great Wall, as well as the UNI series of Changan, and Geely's "China Star" series is one of them. The emergence of Xingyue L shows that as long as manufacturers are willing to make the cost, it is not that they cannot launch products with excellent performance and balance, and it is believed that with the continuous introduction of good products, consumers will eventually use practical actions to support domestic brands and further promote the development of independent brands.