GWM Haval Jolion vs Citroen C3 Aircross

What's the difference?

It’s easy to see why the Jolion is making a big impact on the sales charts. It’s great value, has contemporary styling, and it’s come a long way in bridging the quality gap between Haval’s old catalogue and its rivals from Japan and Korea.

I even find it quite nice to drive, especially in this S spec, but it’s still hard to recommend given I’d probably spend the same money on the hybrid or one of the more value-oriented variants further down the range. It’s also a shame the driver assist tech is so heavy-handed, it only serves to tarnish the whole car.

In summary then: I liked this car, but wished I could like it more.

It's a good car, no question. Individuality is key to Citroen's brand appeal and you get that, too. A comfortable cabin, plush ride and hot damn, it's way too expensive, which is a crying shame. You could argue - as Citroen's product planners probably have - that it doesn't help to offer one in the mid-$20K mark because it won't make much money because so few people will buy it. Drop it at a premium, only lose a few opportunistic buyers but make more money per unit with committed fans? Why not, I guess?

Like most French cars, I'm glad it exists for weird French car fans like me to consider.

Remember when Haval’s SUVs were hideous? It was a time worth forgetting for the brand, and finally its range has moved on to new generation products, all of which are orders of magnitude better looking than their recent ancestors.

The Jolion, for example, is quite an attractive small SUV, at least from the front, with a very contemporary, glitzy grille, smart-looking LED fittings (complete with a DRL to add a bit more character), and a wide, squared-off stance.

Haval has clearly finally found its own design voice. It comes across as all neat and tidy, ready to compete with the titans of the small SUV space, until you get around the rear.

In my view this is the car’s least appealing angle, and it’s not because of the shape of the car, I think it’s been designed quite well, it’s just the plethora of badgework adorning the boot.

While an excess of chrome nameplates might be in vogue in China, it hasn’t translated well for an Australian audience.

Haval simply doesn’t have the gravitas to pull off the gaudy big-type letter-work across the boot, and to confuse onlookers it also says ‘GWM’ in one corner, and JOLIONS in the other, as the brand seemingly ran out of room to add a space before the S.

This alone should be warning enough there’s simply too much going on here. Nothing a heat gun and some fishing line can’t fix, however.

The interior takes more of a minimalist, and dare I say, European approach. I like the look of the cascading dash layers, the surprising abundance of soft-touch surfaces, and the wheel and console design which looks as though it takes a lot of influence from the likes of Peugeot.

There are still some pretty ordinary plastics strewn throughout the cabin if you look closer, however, and the synthetic leather seat trim isn’t particularly convincing.

The gaudy over-use of Haval logos has made its way onto the seats in both the first and second row… again, why?

The digital dash is also a bit dull in direct sunlight, and the software isn’t particularly customisable or attractive, which is a bit of a shame.

As you might imagine, it's an individual design. Lots of Cactus cues, like the roof rails, bluff front end and stacked headlights Hyundai, uh, appropriated for the Kona. Curiously, no 'airbumps' along the side despite the C3 hatch having them...

The 17-inch wheels somehow look tiddly given the airspace over the wheels and I can report that black is not really this car's colour, even with the contrasting white roof and weird Mazda 121 Shades special edition venetian blind treatment on the quarter window. Bit of an '80s throwback there for you.

Lots more Cactus inside though, starting with the brilliant front seats, squared-off steering wheel and funky air vents. The little tray on top of the glove box is good, but it isn't rubber-lined, so that's annoying.

The Top Gun handbrake is hilarious but apart from the texturing of the fabric on the seats, it's a tad dark below the windowline. 

The Jolion sits in the goldilocks SUV size-bracket. It’s marketed as a ‘small SUV’ but it manages to sit between the small and mid-size segments, making it trim on the outside but massive on the inside.

Think of it as more similar to cars like the Nissan Qashqai or Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross rather than the likes of the diminutive Kia Stonic or Mazda CX-3.

Space is a big highlight in the front, adjustability is pretty good aside from the lack of telescopic reach for the steering column, and I was able to find a comfortable driving position very easily.

The raised centre console is a good looking touch, complete with a nook for a wireless charger, and a massive storage area underneath.

It’s also possible to cable-manage very easily, with the USB ports located underneath, and a convenient little pass through to keep them from cluttering up the space.

The phone-oriented design continues with a little rectangular cutout perfect for placing your device on its side if you’re not using the charging bay, and a flip-away lid reveals two reasonably-sized bottle holders.

Unfortunately, there’s a major usability blunder here, with the rotary gear shifter not having a limited set of positions it clicks into. It just freely rotates.

If you rotate it too fast it won’t register your selection, and you have to really concentrate to make sure the correct gear is selected. Seems to me to be an easy way to accidentally reverse or accelerate into a bollard or worse…

The big screens are welcome, as there’s a complete lack of buttons in the minimalist design. I found the main panel left it reasonably easy to reach touch areas, and it is backed by sufficient hardware to make it sharp, snappy, and responsive.

But then, there are some significant operability issues here, as well.

There’s no volume dial or toggle, so you can only adjust the system volume via the steering wheel or the audio control sub-menu buried in the system. Very annoying.

Thankfully Haval’s most recent round of updates has dumped the touch surface atop the dash for tactile climate buttons, making at least this system easy to operate while you’re on the move.

It’s such a shame to have these usability blunders, because otherwise the design is tidy and functional, and feels decent quality, too, which we can’t say of all cars of Chinese origin.

The back seat is awesome. There’s lots of room, even for those over 182cm (six feet) tall, complete with big doors which open wide for easy access, perhaps even for the fitment of child seats in the outer two seats.

The back seat offers adjustable air vents, USB power outlets, and additional bottle holders in the drop-down armrest, so it’s hard to complain about amenity for rear passengers, and as the Jolion’s platform is set up for front-drive only, there’s a perfectly flat floor back there, making it suitable for adults in the middle position.

Boot space is a whopping 430 litres which strays into mid-size SUV territory. It’s reasonably easy to load stuff in with a big hatch opening, although the boot floor is quite high so you’ll need to lift objects up and over.

You’ll also have to watch out for the tiny rear window, as it would be easy to block an already limited view out the back. A space-saver spare wheel sits below the floor.

Even for a little car, the Aircross could do better. The lack of a proper cupholder provision for the car - a solitary spot at the rear of the centre console - is mildly baffling until you remember that this car is from France. The French hate a cupholder but, obviously, you can fit wine bottles in the doors.

It's worth repeating just how comfortable and supportive the front seats are on any given journey. Broad but supportive and somehow perfectly sprung, I would cheerfully rip out most other front seats and replace them with these.

The rear seats are less of these things and anyone who forces anyone to use the middle seat should be ashamed of themselves. The headroom is good back there, though.

The boot is a big one for the size of the car, swallowing 410 litres and expanding to 1289 litres with both rear seat sections folded.

A perennial Citroen problem is the price - at $32,990, the tiny SUV is doing battle with cars that are really a size up, coming in closer in size to the Venue than, say, the ASX.

That Yaris Hybrid price (we're all still reeling from that number) scores you a 17-inch alloys, a six-speaker stereo, climate control, front camera, reversing camera, keyless entry and start, front and rear parking sensors, cruise control, sat nav, halogen headlights (yep, you read that right), head-up display, leather wheel and shifter, auto parking, auto wipers and headlights, wireless charging pad and a space-saver spare.

The central touchscreen is annoying in that there are almost no hardware switches for functions like climate control. The software is a bit on the slow side, too, but you do get Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. The stereo is fine.

The big sell when it comes to the Jolion S is its more powerful engine, but it’s not really much more powerful, adding an additional 20kW and 50Nm for a total of 130kW/270Nm.

This engine remains mated to a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission driving the front wheels only.

Additional performance enhancements include swapping out the rear torsion bar for multi-link rear suspension, designed to enhance handling.

One of the great engines in mass-produced road cars today has found its way under the bonnet of the Aircross. Peugeot-Citroen's 1.2-litre three-cylinder turbo is a cracking engine, serving up 81kW/205Nm through a six-speed Aisin-sourced auto to the front wheels.

While the 11.8-second dash to 100km/h is, uh, leisurely, the torque figure means that on the move it's not as sluggish as that number or its 1200kg kerb weight would suggest.

Interestingly, this new engine also comes with a reduction of 0.6L/100km in overall fuel use compared to the standard car, trimming official combined consumption to 7.5L/100km.

In reality, I experienced consumption a little higher than this, at about 8.7L/100km in my week with the car, although I was travelling at mostly urban speeds.

All Jolion models are set up to drink entry-level 91 RON unleaded as an additional bonus, and rare for turbocharged dual-clutch equipped cars.

This car also has a 55-litre fuel tank, for a theoretical cruising range of over 800km.

Citroen claims a handy 6.6L/100km on the combined cycle and my week with the fizzy Frenchie included a trip over the hills and far away as well as a lot of suburban running. 

The digital display on the dashboard read 7.3L/100km, which isn't bad going without stop-start. It does require 95 RON premium fuel, though.

Driving the Jolion is frustrating, because it should be very good. In terms of cars from China, it has many impressive traits, but I found the safety system in the car we tested to be frustratingly invasive.

I can look past the slightly jerky lane keep tech, as Haval is far from alone in this department, but the driver monitoring system is by far the most frustrating safety feature I have experienced in any car. Ever.

Take your eyes off the road for a brief moment, like, say, to adjust one of the many things which can only be adjusted via the multimedia screen, and the car chides you with a ringing alarm, which doesn’t go away for a while unless you jab at a tiny pop up acknowledgement on said media screen. Not only is this extremely annoying, it’s entirely counter-intuitive.

Sometimes it would just activate because I was wearing sunglasses or a hat, not because I wasn’t looking at the road. Other times, it would leave me alone for the entire trip.

This lead me, of course, to turn the system off, which you have to do every time you start the car.

Hopefully, this can be ironed out in a future software update, because otherwise the Jolion is very competitive to drive.

From the get-go it feels more balanced, with a better ride and handling than its key China-built rival, the MG ZS.

It has a firm, sporting ride, dull but adequate steering feel, and the turbo surge from the little engine keeps it feeling reasonably engaging, too.

The dual-clutch isn’t too glitchy, feeling reasonably snappy at the lights, and switching cogs with ease once you’re rolling.

It still needs some sandpapering, though. It’s entirely possible to catch it off guard, and it can present with a few glitchy moments on hills, but it’s far from the worse dual-clutch experience I’ve had.

In fact, with the improved power outputs, driving the Jolion feels quite reminiscent of entry-level Volkswagens or Skodas, bar the latter's supple ride.

The engine and road even sounds quite distant, imbuing the car with a higher-quality feel than expected on the freeway, largely thanks to lots of sound deadening visible in a surprisingly tidy engine bay.

On the whole I’m impressed with what the Jolion S has to offer. It feels very close to where it needs to be to take on its more established rivals, and certainly one of the better driving cars in this segment of Chinese origin.

It’s just a shame about the safety tech which tarnishes an otherwise decent drive.

French cars have a very specific audience in this country, which includes weirdos like me. I've owned Peugeots and Renaults and loved every second of it.

Top of my list after my darling baby boy wrote off our family car (which was bought for him to drive), the Cactus was close to the top of the list. This fandom isn't blind, though - I know what I'm getting myself into having to dispassionately assess their faults and foibles as well as their triumphs and tangible benefits.

If I'm being honest - and it's just you and I here - I didn't think I'd like the C3 Aircross, there was just something about its SUV pretensions. I can't say the looks grabbed me and the inexplicable exclusion of the airbumps made me irrationally cross.

But once you slip behind that square-ish wheel into the comfortable embrace of those excellent seats, you forget the aesthetics (which did grow on me, even in black). 

The 1.2 turbo is, as ever, eager to please and well-matched to the six-speed auto. The two work well together to get you moving, although the engine is the noisiest installation I can remember. In the Peugeot 308, it's virtually silent.

On the move, the lovely ride also impresses, soaking up the bumps (except those aggressive rubber speed humps in shopping centre car parks) while keeping body roll to an acceptable minimum.

It's perfectly fine in the suburbs, even with its limited power. Breaking into traffic can be a bit of a moment, but there are slower cars about.

Where the Aircross is really good is out on the freeway. It's quiet for such a small car and that torque figure makes joining the M4 freeway (west out of Sydney) fine, and it cheerfully kept up on the climb up the Blue Mountains and the brakes and transmission were great down the other side.

Citroen is unashamedly about comfort over handling, but the trade-off for the comfort is pretty good in that it still handles despite a plush ride and being up on stilts.

Along with six airbags, ABS, stability and traction controls, the Aircross has low-speed AEB (up to 30km/h), blind-spot monitoring, lane departure warning, driver attention monitoring and speed sign recognition.

Three top tether anchors and two ISOFIX points complete the picture with a five-star Euro NCAP rating dating back to 2017. There is no corresponding ANCAP score, despite the agreement between the two agencies.

Following in the footsteps of Kia before it, Haval offers an impressive seven-year and unlimited kilometre warranty.

This is paired with a five year/70,000km capped price service program (maintenance is required every 12 months/15,000km), which costs between $210 and $450, for a total annual average of $310. Not bad.

Citroen offers a class-competitive five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty with a five year service plan if you want to pre-pay.

That plan costs a stiff $2727 for your five visits (or every 12 months/15,000km). That's nearly three times what you'll pay for a C-HR or about $400 more than a Mazda CX-3.