GWM C20R – A Very Good Car

Everything ends better in R

Pagani Zonda R. Porsche RSR. Nissan GT -R. Golf R. GWM C20R. If it ends in R, chances are it’s a very good car. So you might justifiably wonder why the latest compact hatch crossover from Chinese brand GWM joins this esteemed list.

All those R badges indicate the hyper realm of revered brands; something to aspire to, cars mostly seen in posters affixed to teenage bedroom walls with gobs of Prestik.

And the C20R? Well, it is a poster child of sorts too… for a new vanguard of cars from Panda-land.

In a moment akin to EFF-type diplomacy, we’ll just say it: Chinese cars are mostly rubbish. They are reverse engineered in frighteningly inexact ways, then desperately badly built, to a level where price point dots all grouped to the bargain side of a value graph can’t even start to redeem the compounded awfulness.

Cars are not disposable in the same way that a cheap dress-up party outfit you managed to mix-and-match from the local Made in China shop might be. The prevalence of such shops has made us experienced users of People’s Republic of China products, and as such, we expect rubbish. Thus far, Chinese automotive brands have not disappointed.

Secretly though, we’ve always hoped for something better from GWM. Named after one of the greatest construction achievements in the last 2000 years, Great Wall Motors has quite possibly delivered beyond its usual cloned bakkie fare with this one. The C20R has a transmission which shifts with a semblance of mechanical accuracy, and crucially it has brakes that work again and again. For once all the related acronyms (ABS, EBD, EBA) are actually harmonized and appear to be fully functional.

The suspiciously Toyota-sized 1.5-litre engine has valve-timing trickery good for 77kW and moves the C20R along keenly enough, if a tad noisily. As a bonus, the C20R’s interior does not give off a stomach-churning pong, unlike most other Chinese cars.

Subtle styling, functional mechanical bits, 172mm of ground clearance and a livable cabin aroma, make it an excellent South African daily driver. It’s also the first Chinese car that comes close to deserving that R credential. At a push.

Verdict

Quite possibly the best Chinese car yet, from a brand better known for bakkies.