Chery Tiggo 7 review

The phrase ‘cheap and cheerful’ means something that’s inexpensive but still enjoyable, and it’s one that comes to mind at the mention of the new Chery Tiggo 7, which aims to put buyers into a cheery mood with its keen pricing.

Chery isn’t barreling onto the scene with no prior experience, either. Indeed, while you might not have heard the name before, it’s actually one of the world’s biggest car companies and the owner of two other Chinese car brands that recently arrived in Britain: Jaecoo and Omoda. 

It requires more than keen pricing, though, to take the UK market by storm these days, largely because some rivals – including the Dacia Duster and MG HS – also have small price tags but back that up by being great cars. 

So, does the Chery Tiggo 7 have what it takes to best those cars and tempt you away from pricier alternatives, including the Kia Sportage and Nissan Qashqai? That’s what we’ll find out in this review.

What’s new

- September 2025: First Tiggo 7 UK deliveries take place

- August 2025: Chery Tiggo 7 on sale in the UK with seven-year/100,000-mile warranty. Five seats, 145bhp 1.6-litre petrol or plug-in hybrid (with 18.3kWh battery). Aspire or Summit trims

- July 2025: Chery Tiggo 7 previewed

Picking the engine you’d like in your Chery Tiggo 7 is really easy because there are only two options: a petrol or a plug-in hybrid (PHEV), which is badged ‘Super Hybrid’. 

So far, we’ve only tried the pure petrol version, but found its 145bhp output more than enough to get the car up to speed with ease. Indeed, it’s almost too eager to get off the line, leaping forwards the second that you press the accelerator pedal. This is something that takes a little while to adjust to, especially in stop-start traffic. 

Once you’re moving, though, you’ll officially sprint from 0-62mph in 9.4 seconds, which is faster than the Dacia Duster TCe 130 can manage, but a little slower than the MG HS with an automatic gearbox. 

Speaking of which, every Tiggo 7 comes with a seven-speed auto 'box that flicks through the gears smoothly, and doesn’t have a tendency to change up and down at random moments (something the Duster's does do). It’s also more than happy to drop down a couple of cogs as soon as you press the accelerator pedal hard, making overtaking easy. 

While we’re yet to drive the Super Hybrid PHEV, it promises to sprint from 0-62mph around one second faster than the pure petrol model. That makes it a little faster than the BYD Seal U, but slower than the Jaecoo 7 SHS and MG HS PHEV, the latter of which needs just 6.8 seconds.

Of course, one of the big draws of the PHEV will be its ability to drive on electricity alone. Charge its 18.4kWh battery to 100% and you'll officially manage up to 56 miles before needing to use the petrol engine. That’s pretty much a match for the Jaecoo 7 SHS, farther than the Hyundai Tucson and Kia Sportage, but not as far as the HS PHEV (which managed 74 miles in our real world tests – just one mile off its official range).

In the petrol form we've tried, the Tiggo 7 offers a fairly comfortable ride, soaking up expansion joints and potholes better than the equivalent MG HS. Unfortunately, it lacks the refinement of more expensive rivals, such as the Sportage, because there’s a near constant vibration through the steering wheel, which is particularly noticeable around town.

Put your foot down, and the engine also gets quite vocal, but it fades into the background once you’re up to speed, and wind and road noise are well contained. Here, the Tiggo 7 is undoubtedly helped by its standard-fit double-glazed windows. 

By SUV standards, body lean is fairly well controlled, and there's a decent amount of front-end grip. However, the steering is so light in standard mode that you'll want to always put it in Sport; this gives you a better idea of what the front wheels are up to, although you still don't get the sort of precision you do in a Ford Kuga or a Sportage.

“During my drive in the petrol Tiggo 7, I got stuck behind a fair few tractors, so it was refreshing that the automatic gearbox was so ready to change down.” – Dan Jones, Senior Reviewer 

The driving position of the Chery Tiggo 7 is fundamentally excellent, because the standard electrically-adjustable driver’s seat makes it easy to get comfortable and lines you up perfectly with the steering wheel and pedals.

You also sit nice and high, even by SUV standards, which helps give you a great view over the bonnet and out at junctions. Meanwhile, large rear windows and cut outs in the chunky rear pillars boost over-the-shoulder visibility.

To make parking even easier, front and rear parking sensors and a rear-view camera come as standard with both of the trims on offer. You have to ugrade to top-spec Summit, though, for a surround-view camera.

Given the price of the Tiggo 7, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the interior would be a humdrum mixture of scratchy plastics. Happily, though, that isn’t the case. Instead, there are soft-touch materials on almost every surface, so it feels far more upmarket than the Dacia Duster.

Build quality is on a par with the MG HS, which means the Tiggo 7 feels like it has been screwed together well. As you might expect, some more expensive rivals feel even classier inside, but the Tiggo 7 certainly doesn’t embarrass itself. 

As for tech, every Tiggo 7 has a 12.3in digital instrument display with sharp graphics, although it's not very configurable; for example, it can't show a map.

More positively, the 12.3in touchscreen infotainment system that sits alongside the digital instruments has logical menus and responds quickly to your prods and presses. And while you control most things through the screen – as has become the norm in modern cars – we appreciate that you also get physical controls for the air-conditioning, because these are less distracting to use on the move.

There are also a number of swiping shortcuts on the screen that help you get to certain settings faster; for instance, you can swipe up from the bottom to access additional air conditioning controls (think heated seats and the like) or swipe down from the top to get icons for switching off lane-keeping assist and traffic sign recognition. 

To top off your options, you can also use the voice control assistant to take care of many different functions. We had varying levels of success with this, though, and found it easier to just use the touchscreen or physical controls.

“While most things on the digital driver display are nice and clear, parts could do with a bigger font size. Indeed, those that let you set the speed of the cruise control are really small and hard to read.” – Dan Jones, Senior Reviewer

Even a pair of broad six footers will find they have plenty of room in the front of the Chery Tiggo 7. And although the door bins are small, there are lots of other in-car storage options, including two cupholders, a cooled wireless phone charging pad, another cooled cubby within the armrest and a large area beneath the centre console.

Similarly, there's lots of head and knee room in the back of the car, and a good amount of space beneath the front seats for the feet of rear passengers. Meanwhile, shoulder room is sufficient for three people to sit abreast without feeling too cramped.

A central rear passenger will also be happy that there’s next-to-no central transmission tunnel to straddle. And although their seat is slightly raised compared with the outer two, they should still have enough head room – especially when the panoramic glass sunroof's full-length blind is open.

Sadly, the boot rather let's the side down. At 426 litres, it's small by the standards of the family SUV class; by comparison, you get 507 litres in the MG HS, 517 litres in the Dacia Duster, 591 litres in the Kia Sportage and a whopping 620 litres in the Hyundai Tucson.

The problem is that, with the parcel shelf in place, the Tiggo 7's boot doesn’t offer all that much height, although a big part of the reason for this is that a spare wheel sits beneath (something that's increasingly rare these days).

More positively, there’s no boot lip to contend with when lifting heavy items in, and the rear seats can be folded flat in a 60/40 split. However, the 40/20/40 splits of the Tucson and Sportage offer greater versatility, while the Varioflex seats of the Skoda Karoq are on another level, because they also slide fore and aft and recline.

“At around 5ft 11in, I had absolutely no trouble fitting in the back of the Tiggo 7 with the driver’s seat set up for me.” – Dan Jones, Senior Reviewer

With value for money being a key aim of the Chery Tiggo 7, it probably won’t surprise you that in petrol form it's one of the cheapest family SUVs you can buy. Indeed, it significantly undercuts most rivals, including the class-leading Kia Sportage and big-selling Nissan Qashqai. However, a Dacia Duster can be bought for even less.

As for the Super Hybrid version, this costs £5k more than the petrol, but that still means it undercuts key alternatives, such as the BYD Seal U and the plug-in hybrid (PHEV) versions of the Jaecoo 7 and MG HS.

Of course, for company car drivers, the Tiggo 7 Super Hybrid will be the pick of the range, because its low CO2 emissions and sizeable electric range keeps benefit-in-kind (BIK) payments down.

When it comes to efficiency, the pure petrol version promises up to 40.3mpg, which is an improvement on the HS petrol’s 38.2mpg, but some way behind the Duster’s 52.3mpg. 

The Super Hybrid promises to be more efficient, with its petrol engine managing up to 47mpg when working solo. And that efficiency will be greatly boosted by the all-electric range, providing you regularly charge the battery. Plugging into a public rapid charger will get the Tiggo 7 from 30-80% in 20 minutes.

As mentioned, there are two trim levels to choose from. And, despite its bargain-basement price, even entry-level Aspire gets 18in alloy wheels, dual-zone climate control, LED headlights and the infotainment and parking aids that we looked at earlier. 

Stepping up to Summit, meanwhile, brings larger, 19in alloys, heated and ventilated front seats, a powered tailgate, an upgraded eight-speaker Sony stereo and wireless phone charging. 

Chery is too new to the UK to have featured in the 2025 What Car? Reliability Survey, but it's reassuring that every Tiggo 7 comes with a seven-year/100,000-mile warranty and 12 months roadside assistance. 

When it was tested by the independent safety experts at Euro NCAP, the Tiggo 7 scored four out of five stars. Both the Seal U and HS scored the full five stars and had better scores in each of the individual areas, but it's worth noting that they were tested in previous years when the tests were less stringent, so it’s impossible to directly compare.

What we can say is that the Tiggo 7 comes with a good amount of standard safety equipment, including autonomous emergency braking (AEB), rear cross traffic braking, lane departure warning and assistance systems, and blind spot monitoring. 

“Given the price of the Tiggo 7, I’m impressed by the amount of equipment that you get as standard with both trims. Even electrically adjustable seats are included.” – Dan Jones, Senior Reviewer

Buy it if…

- You want a lot of equipment and passenger space for a minimal outlay

- You value a high driving position and excellent all-round visibility

- You’ll be able to charge the plug-in hybrid version at home, and mostly do journeys of 50 miles or less

Don’t buy it if…

- You sometimes carry bulky luggage and want to keep it out of sight

- You want one of the quietest and most refined family SUVs currently available

- You're looking for a car with a five-star Euro NCAP safety rating

For all the latest reviews, advice and new car deals, sign up to the What Car? newsletter here