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Suffice to say, the GWM Tank 300 has a fair few tongues a-wagging.
And for good reasons.
Through on-road testing and hard initial off-road testing the Tank 300 has certainly logged impressive performances with me and proven itself to be a solid high achiever, in terms of build quality, ride and handling and off-road capability.
The hybrid variant has landed here, but is the petrol-powered Tank 300 more up your alley?
I’m about to tell you why you shouldn’t ignore this 4WD.
Why you should buy a GWM Tank 300
It’s well-priced at around the $50,000 mark – especially in an overcrowded and overpriced SUV market – and it’s packed with features.
There are two variants in the petrol-only range: the Lux (with a drive-away price of $46,990) and the Ultra (with a drive-away price of $50,990).
So, according to those figures, the Tank 300 is about $20,000 cheaper than a few of its petrol-powered rivals, such as Jeep Wrangler and Land Rover Discovery Sport, and any similarly-priced diesels are entry-spec variants.
The petrol-only variants are also up to $10,000 cheaper than their hybrid stablemates.
Standard features list includes 12.3-inch touchscreen multimedia system (with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto), synthetic Nappa leather-accented seats, heated and cooled (front) seats, power adjustable driver’s seat (eight-way) with lumbar adjustment and massage, nine-speaker premium audio, 64-colour ambient lighting, auto-dimming rear-view mirror, wireless charging, 12V and 220V power outlets, front and rear diff locks, 18-inch alloy wheels and more.
It has LED headlights and tail-lights, front and rear USB ports, a sunroof, side steps, roof rails and a comprehensive suite of driver-assist tech.
The GWM Tank 300 is available with five exterior paint options: Fossil Grey is no-extra-cost standard, but Lunar Red, Pearl White, Crystal Black or Dusk Orange each cost $595.
On my 4WD test track, the Tank 300 handled everything with ease, including the loose-gravel dirt track en route to the site. This route is riddled with light-to-medium corrugations, as well as some severe ruts and deep potholes.
My patented ‘Watch out for that roo!' emergency-braking test exposed the Tank 300’s tendency to pitch forward quite dramatically under heavy braking and it took some work to keep the vehicle on track.
The Tank 300 is well suited to low-range 4WDing, even though it doesn’t have a ton of torque on tap (380Nm), but that pulling power is available across a good spread of revs and this GWM 4WD makes efficient use of what it does have.
The off-road driving modes, including Mud/Sand, Rock, Mountain, and Pothole, seem suitably calibrated to fit the demands of different terrain – although I haven’t had the opportunity to try Snow yet.
When you engage some of the modes it will lock diffs where appropriate.
Low-range gearing is effective and, with its front and rear diffs locked, the Tank 300 did everything asked of it pretty easily.
Visibility is impacted in places due to the cabin-build style, but that’s not such an issue when you’re 4WDing at very low speeds. You can always stop and get out of the vehicle to check the track ahead. However, the Tank 300 has a clever piece of tech that goes some of the way to improving driver visibility: it has a transparent chassis function.
This system is similar to the Land Rover Defender’s 'transparent bonnet' view in that its aim is to extend the range of the around-view camera to include a view under the Tank 300 (represented on-screen as a ‘ghost vehicle’ outline when Transparent Chassis is selected).
Wheel travel is more than reasonable. The Tank 300 has a live axle rear end and the only things hampering it when it gets rubber to the dirt are its tyres (more about those in the ‘Why you shouldn’t buy a GWM Tank 300’ section, below).
I didn’t try out the Tank Turn function (similar to the LandCruiser’s turn assist, which applies the brakes to the vehicle's inside rear wheel at low speeds to help reduce your turning circle), but I’m sure it’d come in handy if you needed it.
All in all, the GWM Tank 300 is a very capable off-roader.
Being a petrol-powered 4WD, you might assume that fuel consumption is on the wrong side of high. Well, it's not quite that bad...
The GWM Tank 300 Ultra petrol has a listed fuel consumption figure of 9.5L/100km (on a combined cycle). It uses regular unleaded fuel.
On my most recent test, which included a day of 4WDing, I recorded 10.1L/100km from pump to pump.
The Tank 300 has a 75-litre fuel tank so, going by the fuel figures above, you could reasonably expect a driving range of about 740km from a full tank.
Why you shouldn’t buy a GWM Tank 300
On my test, a few of the GWM Tank 300’s quirks were revealed.
Driver-assist tech is mostly seamless and effective, but the lane keep assist is too harsh and too pre-emptive in its application, abruptly jerking you back into line whenever it ‘thinks’ you've drifted too far off-centre.
The auto stop-start system is quite harsh with a clunky and abrupt engagement and at times there is a disconcerting amount of lag when it comes to starting up again from a standing start. Not good at all when you need quick, off-the-mark pace to safely merge with traffic from a stop light or after a lengthy pause at a roundabout.
The first time I switched off the auto stop-start system during a brief pause at a red light the Tank froze. The engine was still on, but the vehicle wouldn’t move. I hadn’t inadvertently engaged the park brake or put the vehicle into neutral or anything else that would otherwise keep me at a standstill. But there I was – static.
Not ideal, especially when the light then turned green and I couldn’t go anywhere until I’d switched the car off and on again to get moving.
The indicator stalk is peculiar in that there are minute differences in the amount of pressure the driver needs to apply to it in order to signal a full right- or left-hand turn or a simple lane-change manoeuvre. Many times the indicator would stubbornly stay on after I’d signalled a lane-change, no matter how quickly or softly I hit the stalk.
Annoying, and possibly dangerous if the drivers behind or beside you on the highway think you’re changing lanes or you are about to turn.
I eventually got the knack of applying just the right amount of pressure for indicating a lane-switch but that indicator is sensitive.
I could never get the adaptive cruise control to work. I’ve since found out that it may have had something to do with what driving mode I was in – but it shouldn’t be rocket science!
Its Michelin Primacy SUV tyres (265/60R18) do a good job of keeping the Tank 300 gripped to the road and rubber noise to a minimum on sealed surfaces, but they are not suited to 4WDing. Replace them with a set of high-quality all-terrains.
The GWM Tank 300 feels low at times. Ground clearance is listed as 224mm (so, less than some, more than others), and it has official approach and departure angles of 33 and 34 degrees, respectively (no rampover angle is listed), but it feels vulnerable to scraping its undercarriage on the earth.
Its very pronounced side steps also easily bump into the dirt when you’re traversing rough terrain: this may result in either a light scuffing of the steps’ sides or underside, or a damaging grind against rock under the vehicle’s weight and the steps being bent out of shape.
Also worth noting is the fact that the Tank 300 has a listed payload of 446kg (even less once you’ve packed it or, god forbid, you’ve installed any aftermarket gear) and braked towing capacity of 2500kg.
What I reckon
The days of disregarding any vehicle simply because it’s made in China are long gone.
The GWM Tank 300 is part of the most recent new wave of SUVs and real 4WDs offering comfort, safety and a stack of features onboard but with price-tags that may cause tears of joy rather than anguish.
The Tank 300 is an impressive 4WD wagon: smooth and refined on-road and very capable off-road.
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