With the gradual rise of Chinese car brands in the Middle East market, consumers are increasingly enjoying the benefits of cost-efficiency and advanced features. Compared to traditional Japanese brand SUVs, Chinese brand models are not only more modern in exterior design, but also offer higher technology and practicality at the feature level, which is fully reflected in the Geely Coolray.
Exterior
Compared to other Chinese-branded SUVs available in the Middle East market, the Coolray's front is impressive, with an exaggeratedly sized centre mesh that adds to the sporty appearance through cut-outs and two sides.
The headlights use LED light sources and are equipped with height-adjustable headlights with automatic headlight function, and the daytime running lights with silver accents and spoiler decorations look very deep.
The side of the body still adopts a two-tone body design, and the waistline adopts a through design, extending from the front wing panel to the rear of the car, embellishing the side of the body with a sense of hierarchy.
The changes in the rear of the car is the taillight part, the new model replaced the penetrating taillights, and the exhaust pipe adopts a bilateral total of four layout, highlighting the identity of the ‘small steel gun’. The dimensions of the new model are 4380/1800/1609mm in length, width and height respectively, with a wheelbase of 2600mm. As a small SUV, space is not its selling point.
Interior & Comfort
The centre console is made of materials that are considered to be relatively well thought out for a car in its price range, with soft plastic lining. If it weren't for the red lines, I'd describe the Coolray's interior as more ‘premium’ than ‘sporty’.
The steering wheel wrapped in leather has a delicate feel and a full grip, and the perforated positions on both sides sit in a closed hand design, which is quite a small racing car.
Dual connecting screen is the most popular design nowadays. The instrument screen displays a wealth of information, showing a clear effect, and the readability of the information is also very good. The 10.25-inch full LCD instrumentation, which can show a lot of information, the sense of seniority and sense of technology is very sufficient. The 12.3-inch central control screen is very fast accordingly.
The interface design and control logic of the centre control screen is good among Chinese brands, with a clear and reasonable layout and fast response time. As for the functions, I believe no one will doubt the strength of the Chinese brand's car machine in this regard.
The sporty style seat padding is relatively soft, and the seats are made of leather and tumbled fur, so the comfort of the ride is good, and the materials and colours of the rear seats are basically the same as the front row. The space to meet the two people daily use no problem, the weekend ride two friends travelling can also be satisfied.
Powertrain
The Coolray uses a 1.5L turbocharged engine and a 7-speed wet dual-clutch transmission, with a maximum power of 181PS and a peak torque of 290N-m, which is really an eye-catching figure in a small SUV.
The 1.5L turbocharged engine is more linear in the low speed area, without any sudden feeling, the throttle is not sensitive in the initial stage of the tuning, the first time you can also drive smoothly, there will not be a flurry of sensations. The acceleration experience that can be brought about by deeply stepping on the accelerator and pulling up the revolutions is not that exciting, but for a small SUV whose price is not exaggerated, it is relatively good.
The 7-speed dual-clutch gearbox impressed me the most with its smoothness, both upshifts and downshifts are so gentle that if you don't feel it carefully, you may only be able to detect its movements through the tachometer. The speed of the gearshift is a little too fast for the name ‘small steel gun’, but it's certainly not slow in the same price range of models using dual-clutch gearboxes.
Its small body allows for more agile handling, with responsive steering and a good overall feel to the body. However, the small body also brings a problem that the dampers can't be too soft, so the vibration filtering ability of small SUVs is generally average. Coolray is the same, most of the vibrations from the road surface will be transmitted into the car, but fortunately after the seats filtered, these vibrations won't affect the comfort level too much.
The Coolray offers four driving modes to choose from, namely sport, comfort, eco and adaptive, and the difference between the modes is relatively conventional, so I won't introduce it too much. What's more interesting is that in the sport mode, the car's computer system can individually set the size of the exhaust sound, which is a configuration that I think young consumers in pursuit of sports will like very much. For young consumers pursuing sports, this is a configuration I think they will like very much.
Safety
The Coolray is equally up to date in terms of safety, which comes as standard:
ABS+EBD
ICC (Intelligent Cruise Control)
LKA (Lane Keeping Assist)
BSD (Blind Spot Detection)
IHBC (Intelligent High Beam Control)
AEB (Autonomous Emergency Braking)
Autonomous parking assistant
540° panoramic view
Wireless charging
TPMS
Flowing integrated double screen
Price
The Geely Coolray is available in three models priced:
Model | Price |
Coolray GS | SAR 75,500 |
Coolray GC | SAR 82,685 |
Coolray GF+ | SAR 93,035 |
Summary
Sporty, stylish and fun to drive, these three features should be the most important concern for young consumers when they first buy a car, and these are also the most distinctive features of Coolray. 75,000 SAR can already buy some Japanese brand SUVs, so why would you want to choose a Coolray? Because young consumers care more about the quality of the car and whether the car has a distinctive personality, so if you think the car is not worth it, it may just be that your needs for a car are different from those of young people.