Like a sale at a store in Madinah Square, or a discount for a room at the Carmel Forests hotel, even in luxury products, customers are always happy to find a deal. And now a new car manufacturer is coming to Israel, presenting a prestigious positioning and a price tag that is NIS 150-200 thousand cheaper than similar models from long-standing luxury manufacturers.
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Via belongs to Dongfeng, one of the four largest car manufacturers in China. Perry is the first model of its luxury division. The importer is Metro Motor, the largest importer of two-wheelers in Israel, which in recent years has been expanding into the automotive sector. But is it a luxury car? And is it a good luxury car?
Design: A large chrome grill and the angles of the rear that remind a bit of a yacht, give the fruit a presence on the road. The character is more sporty than luxurious, and the design is quite conservative overall. The dimensions also help the presence: with a length of 4.90 meters, a width of 1.95 meters, a height of 1.64 meters and a wheelbase of 2.96 meters, this is a large crossover, larger than the Audi Q8 Itron and the Mercedes EQC.
The driver environment is much more advanced, including a feature that we have not seen until today. There are three 12.3-inch screens across the dashboard, the left one is used as a dashboard, and the other two are for multimedia and system operation. The right screen is accessible to the front passenger, who the manufacturers tend to neglect.
And the feature? Upon starting the entire dashboard rises a few centimeters up. When the vehicle is put into performance mode, it drops back to the initial state, and the screens go into a suitable display mode. We've already seen cars where the multimedia screen can be pulled out when starting, but there hasn't been a fully retractable dashboard yet. There is also a switch that allows raising and lowering according to the driver's desire. This will provide material for many web videos.
Via also didn't give up physical operating buttons for the climate control, and that's a good thing. The materials are definitely of high quality, such as the artificial but soft leather that wraps the seats.
Space: very good in front, the seats are electrically adjustable, heated and ventilated. There is even more space in the back, including an air conditioner outlet and two USB sockets, standard and C. The trunk has a generous volume of 560 liters, and there are also hooks for hanging bags. And there is another small trunk, with a volume of 72 liters under the "hood".
Equipment: the list is longer than the Haggadah: an effective night vision system on the driver's display, wireless charging for a mobile phone, a panoramic sunroof with electric dimming, a perfume system for the passenger compartment, an electric trunk door, an option to activate some functions with hand gestures – such as answering a call on a mobile phone, identification Interior using cameras that are also used to stream video for calls, take a video of the back seat to later show the children how they slept while driving, a DYNAUDIO audio system, Apple and Android compatibility and an active noise canceling system. There is no other crossover that offers such a list as standard equipment at the price of being.
Safety: autonomous braking, lane departure correction, adaptive cruise control, driver fatigue warning, dead zone vehicle detection, 360 degree cameras, warning against forgetting children and more. The vehicle has not yet been tested in the European crash test, but in Sinai it received 5 out of 5 stars.
Performance: two electric motors with a combined power of 489 hp, dual drive. A very generous battery capacity, 106 kWh, allows an official range of 500 km. On paper, one of the longest in the group.
Despite a curb weight of 2.4 tons, the fruit is a fast vehicle, with the speed changing depending on the drive system mode chosen by the driver – economical, where only half of the power is available, normal (75%) and performance (100%), in favor of reducing electricity consumption and extending the range. Even in the economical mode, the fruit accelerated in the test from 80 to 120 km/h in 5 seconds, but in the sport it flew by in only 2 seconds. 4.4 seconds from 0 to 100 is the official figure, but it doesn't tell the whole story The story of the ability to overtake wherever allowed, and to be first at every traffic light.
When you switch to sport mode, the air suspension lowers the vehicle and the interior space shrinks from 17 cm to only 12 cm. This is well felt in the curves, where the Vya exhibits not bad control of the roll angles for a heavy and tall vehicle, tighter than in the normal suspension settings. The good ride comfort is almost unaffected. It's not a Porsche Cayenne, but it's not shy. In off-road mode, the belly space increases to 21 cm.
Range? In mainly intercity driving, and most of the time in economy mode, the average consumption was 24 kWh per 100 km. This means a range of about 430 km in practice. Driving only in economy mode and with fewer accelerations you will pass the 450 km mark. The fruit is capable of fast charging with a power of up to 125 kWh per hour, which means 45 minutes to charge from 20% to 80%. AC charging is carried out at 11 kWh per hour.
With the purchase, the importer offers free of charge three annual treatments, one every 20,000 km, with collection and return of the vehicle from the customer's home, and a service center that is available 24/7. This is not unusual in the luxury market, but it certainly meets the standard.
With the level of equipment and workmanship, the Fruit definitely deserves to be considered a luxury car. The human engineering is not yet at the German level, the charging rate could be faster, and the Q8 Itron or BMW iX more sporty. Only in the price gap between them and the fruit can you buy a new Tesla Model 3. It is only slightly more expensive than the Audi Q4 Itron, BMW iX1 and Mercedes EQA, but is much larger, significantly more powerful and with a longer range between charges.
If you measure its being according to its current capabilities, the level of investment and execution, it has nothing to be ashamed of against brands that have been with us since the invention of the car. And when you add the equipment and the price to the equation, it does something uncommon in the industry: it gives fair value for money. The Germans may have succeeded in defeating the British and Italians in the luxury market, but against the Chinese the battle has opened anew.
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