With its own brands to grab the market, GAC Toyota Fenglanda "lethality" geometry

In recent years, the Japanese joint venture brands represented by Toyota and Honda have become the biggest winners recognized in the domestic auto market, and even when the market is at its lowest, they have maintained their growth momentum. Generally speaking, strong brands think more about how to amplify their brand premium effect, but GAC Toyota's thinking is more than this, but playing a "low-price brand".

Earlier this year, GAC Toyota released a compact SUV named Fenglanda. Judging from the name of the car, Feng Landa is another member of the "Landa Brothers" after Highlander and Veranda. The price range of Fenglanda's five models is 125,800-169,800 yuan, indicating that the market it locks in will be the market where its own brands are located. In the domestic market, 150,000 yuan is the world of first-line independent brand compact SUVs and first-line joint venture brand small SUVs. Such as Haval H6, Changan CS75, Geely Boyue, etc. are all popular models in this range. As a joint venture model, Fenglanda's pricing does not follow common sense, and it seems that it does not talk about "Wude".

Is GAC Toyota's "low-priced" model in line with the market's taste? Recently, GAC Toyota held a test drive activity for the Fenglanda model in Changsha, Hunan Province, the reporter personally experienced the car, felt the balance of GAC Toyota in building the Fenglanda - the main indicators are enough "Toyota", there is no obvious defect, but there are deficiencies in secondary indicators and details.

As the city of this test drive, Changsha's roads are decent as a whole, and there are no particularly extreme road conditions. In the ordinary flat road, although the car is full of 4 people, but the Fenglanda start response is quite rapid, there is no obvious frustration in the acceleration process, the turn is also very dexterous, the official said that the Fenglanda has a minimum turning radius of 5.2 meters in the same level. However, when starting on the climbing section, you can feel that the fenglanda power has some "meat".

In terms of power parameters, Fenglanda is equipped with Toyota 2.0L Dynamic Force self-priming engine, the maximum power is 126kW (171Ps)/6600rpm, the peak torque is 205N·m/4600-5000rpm, and the official NEDC 100 km fuel consumption is 5.7L, which is the lowest in the same class. The driveline section is matched with a Low Gear Gear Mechanism and can simulate a Direct Shift-CVT transmission with 10 virtual gears.

Toyota's 2.0L engine configuration is actually used in higher-level models such as the Willanda, so it is more than enough for the Frontlander. Through the test drive of the power part, it can be felt that the use scene of Fenglanda is an urban road, and its tuning style is more suitable for home use.

Today's new cars, all kinds of intelligent functions have long been the standard. While driving to the vicinity of Yuelu Mountain, the reporter tested fenglanda's intelligence level. Taking the voice navigation function as an example, its response level is still remarkable, and it will actively avoid congested road sections and prohibited road sections, and the timing of voice prompts during navigation is also more appropriate. However, there is a small deficiency, when the speed of speech when the navigation command is issued is fast, the system may not be able to accurately recognize.

According to reports, Fenglanda is equipped with the "Fengyun Yuexiang" intelligent vehicle system, which supports HiCar/Carplay/Carlife and many intelligent functions, including online navigation, online video and audio, intelligent voice assistant, car home interconnection, life services, Bluetooth music and so on.

The reporter's test drive this time for the FengLanda high-end model, the car central control screen is 9 feet, although not very large, but basically enough, the touch of the screen is very sensitive and silky, in the control of the situation did not appear Caton, the only regret is that the screen resolution is somewhat low, close observation can see the grain on the screen.

As an SUV that positions everyday household use, comfort is an important indicator. During the test drive, it can be felt that the chassis of Fenglanda is relatively thick, and when passing through potholed roads or sections with a lot of stones, the shock absorption effect is obvious, and the noise in the car is also less. The reporter learned that Fenglanda placed high-quality sound insulation and sound-absorbing materials in a wide range of roofs, cockpits and bottom bodies, while increasing the thickness and coverage of plates such as sound insulation cotton, effectively reducing the noise in the car.

Another core indicator of home SUVs is security. According to official information, the Fenglanda core grade and above models are equipped with Toyota Safety Sense Safety (Toyota Collision Avoidance Assistance Kit), including PCS pre-collision safety system, DRCC dynamic radar cruise control system, LTA lane tracking assistance system and AHB automatic adjustment high beam system, reaching the level of quasi-L2 automatic driving.

In terms of storage space, The Frontlanda's trunk is very regular, with a conventional volume of 438L, which can hold four 22-inch suitcases, and the second row of seats also supports 4/6 ratio reclining, which can further expand its loading capacity, and the trunk is only 720 mm off the ground, which is friendly to some users with lower heights. Inside the car, you can also see all kinds of small storage spaces provided by Fenglanda.

It is worth mentioning that Fenglanda provides 1 traditional USB and 1 12V interface in the front row, and 2 type-c interfaces in the rear row. Compared with the traditional USB interface, the type-c interface has stronger power supply, faster transmission speed and stronger scalability, which is more practical for young consumers who like smart devices.

Overall, Fenglanda is currently the most "cost-effective" car in GAC Toyota's SUV products, with a starting price of more than 120,000 yuan being cheaper than its own small SUV C-HR, which is because the car is a special model of GAC Toyota specifically for the Chinese market and some markets in Southeast Asia, and has localization advantages in production costs. But low price does not mean low quality - the TNGA architecture ensures that the large aspects of the car are in line with Toyota's latest car manufacturing standards.

To some extent, in order to achieve the purpose of seizing more market share, Fenglanda has become a joint venture car company, and will not hesitate to emulate the model of its own brand, that is, the model of lower product price and higher configuration to participate in the market competition. GAC Toyota has an urgent need to increase sales. GAC Toyota announced that its sales target for 2022 is to reach one million units, and to achieve the target, it is inseparable from a richer product line, and Fenglanda is one of them.