Editor-in-Chief | Zhong Kun
Author | Hulu Man
Edit | Chen Shuhao
Reports from car hoist circles
In the past 2021, GAC Trumpchi may not have thought that the young car Trumpchi Shadow Leopard launched by itself not only reaped successful sales, but also "detonated" wave after wave of network public opinion...
As a phenomenon-level "young car", Shadow Leopard suffered a similar situation after the tenth generation of Civic listing: many people used the banner of "car fans" to ridicule Shadow Leopard and its owners on car friends and Online forums; there are also some boring owners of other brands, "sneaking" into the Shadow Leopard car friends group and making some remarks to maliciously slander the new car.
And such public opinion has also intensified with the fermentation of the Internet. So that in the end, many shadow leopard owners came out to clarify: "I did not provoke other brands, nor did I brainlessly brag about shadow leopard..."
In fact, what kind of model is the Trumpchi Shadow Leopard? Did you wear colored glasses and misread the Shadow Leopard model?
Every successful model
will experience such "labor pains"
When the tenth generation of Honda Civic was listed, because of some remarks of the "Nanjing Civic Car Friends Group", the Civic was pushed to the cusp of the storm, and it was also labeled as a "ghost fire teenager".
But later, sales proved everything: the tenth generation of Civic, in 2019, sales in China exceeded 200,000! Become a legendary sedan of a generation!
And this time, the Shadow Leopard seems to have experienced something similar to that of the Tenth Generation Civic.
There is always someone who makes the shadow leopard's wind comments killed. But sales also prove it all:
In the last three months, Trumpchi Shadow Leopard's sales performance has been very strong. Sales in October and November continued to exceed 10,000 units, and sales in December were also close to 10,000 units. Excellent sales results are enough to make Shadow Leopard, which is not cheap, rank among the ranks of high-selling domestic cars.
According to this momentum, after the spring of 2022, the monthly sales of Shadow Leopard ranked among the top five or even the top three domestic cars, which may not be too much of a problem.
How does a sentence come about?
"All that can't defeat me will eventually make me stronger."
This is true of civics, and even more so of shadow leopards.
So, if we put aside those misunderstandings and speculations, what is the truest side of Shadow Leopard?
Not AMG nor M Power
The Shadow Leopard is just a family car
Some people joked: Shadow Leopard can punch AMG and kick M Power. Such ridicule is more from the confusion of this car. There is a saying that goes well: the ignorant are fearless.
In fact, when GAC Trumpchi created the Shadow Leopard, it did not over-promote the sport and performance attributes of this car. After all, this is just a family car with a beautiful appearance, a good driving performance, and specially built for young people.
The word "family car" is the focus.
In fact, Trumpchi Shadow Leopard has also laid a solid foundation for family cars, which is first reflected in the spatial level.
The space gain brought by the 4700mm body length and 2736mm wheelbase has made Shadow Leopard have the spatial performance of corolla, Xuanyi and other first-line joint venture car.
Inside, although the front and rear seat design of the Shadow Leopard is biased towards comfort, when the driver and occupants actually sit up, they can still show a comfortable and soft riding texture.
In addition, many people may overlook a highlight inside the Shadow Leopard car.
That is, the optional large rear panoramic window, the rear windshield extends to the top of the rear passenger's head, not only can bring a spacious and comfortable lighting effect, but also let this family car from China have some similar life atmosphere to the French car. This kind of design is actually very emotional, but it is also easy to be ignored.
When Shadow Leopard had these qualities related to home use, it began to pursue youthful and sportier driving performance.
For example, at the design level, Shadow Leopard does not overly stack sports elements. From the basic point of view, this is still a decent horizontal compact sedan.
But what Trumpchi designers did was not to make the car look as bland as other family cars, so they added some sporty elements to the front, side and tail. And it is precisely with the embellishment of sporty elements that the shadow leopard looks no longer monotonous and looks more advanced.
In terms of performance, the Shadow Leopard is not a model that can make drivers feel adrenaline at any time.
However, the 1.5T judial wave power, with a 7-speed dual-clutch transmission, can bring a certain driving pleasure on top of the smooth and comfortable driving texture. After all, 177 horsepower and 270 Nm of torque are enough to give a good push back feeling.
In other words, the measured zero hundred acceleration of the Shadow Leopard is about 7.5 seconds, even if it is slower than the official data, but even in the face of some joint venture B-class cars equipped with 2.0T power and zero hundred acceleration of about 8 seconds, the Shadow Leopard is also stronger than them.
If you have to question the power of the Shadow Leopard, you can first look at the street, how many models of zero hundred acceleration can run into 9 seconds? At least in the author's statistics, there will be more than 80% of the models on the street, and the power performance is not as good as that of the shadow leopard.
In terms of chassis texture, GAC Trumpchi has benefited from years of technical cooperation with Alpha Romeo, and has also explored quite mature at the chassis adjustment level.
In actual driving, although the chassis of the Shadow Leopard is still biased towards comfort, the overall body attitude control, suspension response speed and compression/rebound stroke of the shock absorber are better than most compact cars.
So, on the whole, the Shadow Leopard is a family car that looks good, drives well, and is good to use.
Moreover, the price of this car is only 983-13.18 million yuan. Such a product force is in front of you, what else can you complain about?
The so-called "Ghost Fire Boy"
In fact, a new era is opening
Whether it is the Civic, or the Shadow Leopard, or the upcoming Chang'an UNI-V, this type of family car may be the representative of the "Ghost Fire Teenager" in the eyes of some people.
In their view, "instead of buying a car like this to 'load', it is better to buy a real performance car." ”
Isn't such a view another manifestation of "why not eat meat"?
Not everyone has the money to buy a real performance car; even if it is a low-priced performance car such as Fox ST, Lynk & Co 03+, and Carnival ST, although they are fun to drive, they undoubtedly lack some practicality.
Friends who do not have the ability and the opportunity to buy a real performance car are doomed to drive a bland family car like Corolla?
Brands such as Honda, GAC Trumpchi and Changan have given such friends a chance, a chance to contact civilian sports models.
The inexpensive price, the low cost of playing with the car, and the good practicality are the biggest advantages of this type of sports car; it is precisely because of their existence that young people who are tight on hand can not choose an "old man's car".
It can be seen from the sales volume, whether it is the Civic or the Shadow Leopard, the audience of this type of model is actually very broad, and the real target users also recognize such a sporty home car.
Those who do not recognize this type of model are either "keyboard men" or "performance car owners" who really eat meat.
Therefore, driven by the shadow leopard model, more and more manufacturers will launch sports and young family cars that are not expensive in the future.
In 2022, the Changan UNI-V with electric rear wing will be listed, and the Volkswagen Lingdu L with bezel-less doors will also be listed... In short, such a car has become a trend.
Whether the so-called "car fans" want to see it or not, they will come and they will succeed.
epilogue
There is a saying that goes well: never judge a person by a car; don't negate a car because of some people.
Volkswagen created golf to allow more people to enjoy the pleasure of driving; Ford created MUSTANG to let young people who do not have enough money to experience driving; and Honda created the Civic, Trumpchi created a shadow leopard, and Volkswagen created Lingdu, all for the same purpose.
Fun and trends are not just exclusive to a handful of people, they should become more popular. And this trend is the process that the development of domestic automobile culture will inevitably go through.
Therefore, this storm experienced by shadow leopard is just a small episode in its own powerful road. In the future, this car will have great possibilities and become a classic of a generation, side by side with the classic sedan of the joint venture brand.
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