SA Road Tests

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This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. I drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under real-world South African conditions. Many of the vehicles driven are world cars as well, so what you read here possibly applies to the models you get where you live.

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Upping the ante: 2019 Haval H6C Luxury

Abundantly equipped

Posted: June 20, 2019

The numbers
Prices range from R329 900 to R399 900
Engine: 1967 cc, DOHC four-cylinder, turbopetrol
Power: 140 kW between 5200 and 5500 rpm
Torque: 310 Nm between 2000 and 3600 rpm
Zero to 100 km/h: 9.0 seconds
Maximum speed: 190 km/h
Real life fuel consumption: About 11.7 l/100 km
Tank: 61 litres
Luggage: 247 – 1146 litres
Ground clearance: 170 mm (max), 145 mm (min)
Standard tyre sizes: 225/65R17 or 225/55R19
Spare: Spacesaver
Turning circle: See text
Warranty: 5 years / 100 000 km with roadside assistance
Service plan: 5 years / 60 000 km 

Haval’s H6C offers excellent value for money; solid, well-built and packed with features but critics say it suffers from heavy steering, an oversized turning circle and unreasonable thirst for its size. But it’s not really as bad as they suggest.

Low speed steering feels quite heavy at first; like a sportacious Audi with Quattro rather than an unpretentious city SUV meant for families. After a while, though, you start to think of it as pleasantly weighted and when you’re enjoying the car, in Sport mode and using manual override, through twisty country bends it’s just about perfect.

Then there’s its turning circle that makes getting into tight parking spaces and negotiating one’s front yard a bit awkward. After hours spent scouring the web for an exact measurement, we approached Haval SA: Equal to, or less than, 12 metres they said. Considering the car’s compact size, it should be better.

That brings us to fuel consumption. Reviewers agree that its real-life average is somewhere between 11.1 and 11.8 litres per hundred km. That’s not wonderful but ask yourself this: How many other SUVs with two-litre, 140-kW turbocharged petrol engines and automatic transmissions can you buy in this country for under R400 000? Just one. It’s also Chinese and you don’t see many of them around.

In case you wondered what the letter C in the vehicle’s name is about, it stands for Coupé. That’s because of its sloping roof and to differentiate from the slightly larger, “plain” H6 with 1.5-litre engine that costs somewhat less. Sloping roofs usually mean insufficient rear seat headroom for fully grown passengers but there is no cause for alarm in this instance; your 1.85-metre tall tester found more than a fist-width of space between hair and hood lining. Kneeroom was generous too.

The range comprises six models. That’s three trim levels; City, Premium and Luxury, each with six-speed manual or automatic gearboxes.

Standard spec’ for a City-with-manual includes disc brakes all around, independent suspension front and rear, 17” alloy wheels, electric parking brake with auto-hold, auto-on halogen headlights with follow-me, automatic wipers, four-way adjustable steering wheel with remotes, cruise control, fabric seats with mechanical height adjustment for the driver, a trip computer and six-colour interior mood lighting.

This last item is acceptable if you like that sort of thing but the illuminated stripes on the overhead console are distracting. Equally so, are chimes announcing each function of almost everything electronic. Hopefully they can be switched off or uninstalled somehow.

Safety kit consists of two airbags, pre-tensioners for the front seatbelts, ISOFix anchors with top tethers, post-collision fuel cut-off, ABS with EBA, EBD and ESP, front and rear parking alarms with reversing camera and hill ascent-descent control. It’s NCAP rating is five stars.

Electrical and electronic items include keyless entry and start; automatic locking; folding side mirrors with demister, indicator repeaters and puddle lamps; anti-glare interior mirror; front fog lights; DRLs; dual zone climate control with repeater vents in the back; electric windows with anti-pinch and remote closing and a seven-speaker sound system with MP5, USB, auxiliary, CD player and Bluetooth. Satnav is optional at all levels.

Premium ups the ante to six airbags, 19” wheels, synthetic leather seats with electrical adjusters on both front chairs and tyre pressure monitoring.
 
Luxury level adds a panoramic sunroof, automatically levelling Xenon headlamps, left-hand kerbside camera and an eighth (bass) speaker.

The automatic option adds a six-speed Getrag DCT with sport mode and paddles. It works competently, but not quite as sharply as VW’s seven-speed DSG.

Haval H6C is a good car; abundantly equipped, decently built and a pleasure to drive. It has a few warts but it would cost around R200 000 further to get something more sophisticated. Then there’s the matter of spending extra to add back the features this one includes in the first place.

Test unit kindly loaned by Haval Pietermaritzburg

What We Do

This is a one-man show, which means that every car reviewed is given my personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.

Every test car goes through real world driving; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads or goat tracks as well. As a result, my test cars do occasionally get dirty. It's all part of the reviewing process.

I do my best to include relevant information like real life fuel economy or a close mathematical calculation, boot size or luggage space, whether the space is both usable and accessible, whether life-sized people can use the back seat (where that applies), basic specs of the vehicle and performance figures if they are published. In the case of clearly identified launch reports, fuel figures are of necessity the laboratory numbers provided with the release material.

If ever I place an article that doesn't cover most things, it's probably because I have dealt with a very similar vehicle already, so you will be able to find what you want in another report under the same manufacturer's heading in the menu on the left.

Hope you like what you see, because there are no commercial interests at work here. There are no advertisers and no “editorial policy” rules. I add bylines to acknowledge sponsored launch functions and the manufacturers or dealerships that provide the test vehicles.  And, as quite a few readers have found, I answer every serious enquiry from my home email address, with my phone numbers attached, so you can see I do actually exist.

Comments or questions?
Want to ask a question, comment or just tell me you completely disagree with what I say? If you want advice or have a genuine concern, I will be happy to hear from you. All I ask is that you write something in the subject line so I know which vehicle you're talking about.