MOM'S TAXI TEST: Peta Lee finds out whether this ugly duckling is worth rescuing:
Great Wall Motors is unashamed about borrowing style and design from other cars. So when I first saw the rather odd CB150, and automatically thought of Daihatsu's Materia… and perhaps the Sirion, and even the Soul, I wasn't surprised.
It attracts the same equally divided responses, too: you either hate or love it. Because I (and I suspect many women) tend to gravitate and want to rescue all ugly ducklings out there, it appealed to me. As did all of the above.
So despite some hearty guffawing from one or two colleagues when I swung into my office building's parking lot, I have to confess I enjoyed every minute of the CB150.
Interestingly, surfer buddies were exceptionally interested in it. GWM Umhlanga told me they'd sold a surprisingly large number to these boys and their boards. Flap down the rear seats and the car accommodates surfboards. Open up the boot (it goes up instead of out) and the lads can actually stand beneath it while they change/load up etc. Plus there's the novelty factor.
My daughter said it looked like a school bus, one of the school moms said it reminded her of a London taxi. And if truth be told, they're all right.
Nevertheless, it's spacious, comfy - loads and loads of head room, girls, so those mamas from parliament with their elaborate hats will fit in here quite comfortably! And it's pretty well specced for a runabout costing just R130 000 (actually, R129 265).
You get aircon, CD/MP3 player, power steering, electric windows, reverse radar, adjustable steering column, 15-inch mag wheels, integrated front fog lights, ABS with EBD, dual airbags, etc.
The car is powered by a 1.5-litre VVT motor, with maximum power of 77kW at 6000rpm and 138Nm of torque at 4200rpm. It's more stable on the road than the Florid, with which it shares an engine, because it has a longer wheelbase. Par for the course in this segment, the front-wheel driven car has a five-speed manual gearbox.
There's even a range of options from which to choose to jazz up your jammy: an assortment of rims, leather interior and rimmed steering wheel, custom carpets, and lowered suspension!
We had a ball in the CB150: there's no doubt it's a head-turner, and while not in the same league of head-turning as say the Renault Cup, which I drove a week later, people noticed it. And they were amazed by the affordable pricing.
For the sceptics out there, GWM China owns the largest crash test facility in China and was listed as one of the Top 100 Enterprises in China by Forbes; GWM South Africa had 17 local dealers in 2007 and today has a national dealer footprint of 58, including satellite branches, and stocks parts and accessories worth more than R150-million.
The CB150 is definitely the most affordable car in the range (if you stack it up against, say, the Nissan Livina, the Materia, the Kia Soul and the Citroen C3), although admittedly, the Kia and the Citroen have more powerful engines. And the Kia has the best consumption in the range, the CB150 snaking in at second best.
Value for money, though, and appeal? I have to say I'd adopt the GWM tomorrow!