The sedan version of the Chery A3 has been launched at long last, easily giving Chery the moniker of the best looking compact sedan from a Chinese brand award.
The 1.6 basic A3 will cost 81,800rmb, the 1.6 standard will cost 85,800rmb, and the higher speced 1.6l Elite model will be 89,800rmb.
The one major aspect that will bring potential customers towards the A3 is its fantastic design, the design was created by Pininfarina. The A3 is easily on par design wise with some of the international JV’s cars, notably the recently launched Ford Focus, Nissan Tiida etc, however, it appears that A3 may not be going after those larger sedens, but maybe turning its focus towards the lower priced models such as the Hyundai Elantra, Citroen Elysee, Kia Cerato etc.
Chery have reportedly been running their testing in par with the famous Tsinghua university, who had the Chery A3 run for 66 days straight to reach 100,000km without any issues (although we hope they turned off the car while filling up with gasoline).
The 1.6l engine is currently mated to a 5 speed manual gearbox, but an auto version is expected to be launched in July 2009. The 1.6l engine produces 87.5kW of power at 6500rpm, which is around average for its size, the engine also reaches Euro 5 specification. The hatchback version of the A3 is also expected to be launched very soon.
For more pictures of the excellent A3, click here, we’ve blogged about it quite extensively since its conception at the 2006 auto show.
Something known about the safety? C-NCAP?
Come with ESP and 6 airbags, four-year or 120,000 km warranty, it is reported that in the crash test Chery A3 has reached the five-star auto safety standard.
TV commercial for A3 which emphasizes advantages of ESP:
[url]http://www.autohome.com.cn/news/200809/46536.html
The launch date of the car was postponed many times so that the car can be properly tested and improved according to Chery president .
The design is hardly original, even if it is by Pininfarina. The front looks too much like the european Fords. Profile like vaguely first generation Prius and the rear looks like an old Proton.
I had a quick look at one displayed at Hefei airport and it looked fairly reasonable.
Spotted one in Harbin airport a few months back, the exterior is a vast improvement, the interior is still A5 like, which in turn, resembles a late 90’s Nissan Bluebird in terms of comfort. Its a car that really needs a tissuebox on the parcel shelf, and a two way radio in the dash.