Ride the Great Wall Wingle 7. Strange car….

The Chinese seem to be businesslike, practical, nimble guys, they learn and develop very quickly. It's like everything is right, right? Therefore, it is very strange that they brought such a very far from ideal pickup truck to our market.

Once upon a time, this company offered us Deer trucks shamelessly torn from Toyota models and Safe SUVs – cheap and rather “junky” cars that often broke down and quickly rotted.

The manufacturer did not acquire a good image then, but then there were the very popular H3 and H5. The latter is now offered for purchase again under the name HAVAL H5.

The cars are not sky-high, but quite normal, competitive at their level. It was all the more surprising for me to meet the very ambiguous Wingle.

In fact, it was fully tested by the journalist of the publication “4×4 Full Drive” Alexander Evdokimov, but he kindly gave me the opportunity to ride.

So, impressions.
External are good. Of course, the Chinese did not do without copying. Front – HiLux and Tundra, side and rear – again Haylik.

And the wavy line of the front door glazing is a clear hello to the Ford F-series.

In fairness, we note that Ford also copied this feature from Kenworth tractors))

But who remembers this now?
Well, as for the Great Wall, despite the obvious borrowings, its appearance does not repel.

Moreover, Wingle 7 looks very solid, somehow real, there is no feeling of “foiling”, which was when looking at Chinese cars 10 years ago.

And what's more – this pickup truck surpasses its competitors in the length of the cargo compartment! He has already a meter seventy! Compared with HiLux – one and a half meters.

The nearest price “enemy” UAZ Pickup does not even have one and a half (the cost of Wingle 7 is 1 million 750 thousand conventional units, the Ulyanovsk model in a decent configuration now costs about the same, Japanese cars are much more expensive).

This is really important. Small cargo volume is the scourge of mid-size pickups. Not everyone needs hefty F-150s and Tundras, and they are expensive, and smaller class trucks have short bodies.

Here Wingle clearly wins! And its cargo space is regularly treated with a protective coating, there will be no need to spend money on an insert.

Well, that's good!

The same feeling remains when landing in the cabin. Nothing supernatural, but soundly, there is no toy and flashy cheapness of old cars from China.

The audio system unit is interestingly made. It seems like in the homeland of this car there are versions with a touchscreen, but this option came to us:

Graphics from the last century and buttons with twists, which you have to reach for with your hand. Well at least there is bluetooth.

Well, in general, the comfort is rather mediocre, the chairs are low and they are rustic, landing without enthusiasm.

But here it is worth noting that this is generally the misfortune of all such pickups, I personally didn't really feel comfortable either in the L200, or in the Hilux, or in the UAZ.
The Great Wall salon was done no worse than the others, and for this we can praise.

Any desire to praise disappears when you start driving this car. Under the hood is a 2.0-litre 100-speed turbodiesel.
This seems to be an important advantage over the already mentioned main competitor – UAZ.

But the turbo lag is such that the diesel engine is not happy at all. Until you spin up the speed to one and a half to two thousand, the car is simply dead. Yes, then pickup, confident traction, but the total acceleration to hundreds is 20 seconds. It's terribly slow! Current UAZ vehicles with a ZMZ-Pro engine reach the same speed in 16 seconds.

Another thing is economy. Wingle with six-speed mechanics passport fits into 8 liters of diesel fuel. Real life adds a liter and a half to these figures, but it still turns out well. Also, the load capacity is decent – 975 kg. Here the manufacturer is credited, the car takes a good weight, and at the same time everything was certified correctly, this pickup does not fall under the cargo restrictions.

But what fails – the lack of an automatic transmission. Let's mention UAZ again – even he already has a machine gun! And any competitive Japanese has long been offering trucks without a clutch pedal.

The crap is simply colossal, what do the comrades from China think? Now it is impossible to bring cars without automatic transmission to the Russian market. This is a clear path to failure!

Well, the main sadness is the behavior on the go. Wingle 7 has been modernized outwardly, but retained an absolutely archaic engineering architecture – no one has used torsion bars at the front, rigid multi-leaf springs at the rear.

The car does not rulitsya at all and trembles all steel body on any bumps. No driving pleasure at all.

Yes, it’s a utility vehicle, yes, it’s a truck, but in the 21st century, even the pampered Russian buyer is still demanding of elementary comfort!

This Great Wall could be rehabilitated off-road, as if there are prerequisites for this. Diesel, mechanics, non-differential razdatka with reduction. And the rear cross-axle differential is blocked, but I still don’t understand how exactly. The manufacturer’s website doesn’t say anything at all, a certain self-block is mentioned on the network, but it seemed to me that there was an electronic imitation.

Anyway, we tested the behavior of the Wingle 7 when hung diagonally, and it crawls. A little gas and move on.

But the springs are located under the bridge, which is good for a truck, but bad for an SUV. A huge wheelbase, a lot of plastic front and rear, no tuning market… Somehow it doesn’t seem to me that this car will be massively pulled off-road.

And it’s not at all clear where it will be pulled. A certain number of people may consider the Great Wall as an alternative to the UAZ, but the Wingle 7 has no killer trump cards, there are enough shortcomings.

Weird. The Chinese have long been able to put competitors on the shoulder blades, offering a lot of advantages for little money. But this is not the case.