H9: A Haval To Have.
Haval have unveiled the updated seven seater H9. The 2018 model comes well stocked with standard equipment in the two model range, designated Lux and Ultra, a 350Nm turbo petrol engine of two litres capacity but still no diesel…yet.
Included in the updates are both power and torque increases, from 160 to 180 kW, and up from 324Nm for the torque. Haval have fitted an eight speed auto from ZF, and combined with a change to the compression ration inside the four cylinder engine, say a fuel consumption improvement of around ten percent should be expected. A drop in the time to 100 kmh from zero is also expected, down to ten seconds.
The exterior sees the former three bar grille changed to a five bar design, plus the lower air intake has been massaged for better air flow. Five spoke 18 inch alloys are new. Inside there’s been a raft of changes including a new TFT display screen for the driver, which amongst other information and changes displays a digital speedo.
The seats for the Lux are cloth, the Ultra gets leather plus passengers in the Ultra can enjoy Australian sunshine thanks to a full length glass roof. Safety gets upgraded, with the Lux gaining Blind Spot Monitoring, Rear Cross Traffic Alert, and Lane Departure Warning. The Ultra steps that up with a heated steering wheel, heated second row seats, and an Infinity sound system.
It’s also off-road capable, with a Bosch backed All-Terrain Control System (ATCS). Haval says:
Auto: The system automatically adapts to any on- or off-road situation and is designed as a select and forget setting.
Sand: The Bosch Generation 9.0 Traction Control System allows higher engine speeds and bigger torque for maximum traction through dry sand.
Snow: Traction is adjusted for the slippery conditions prevalent in snow, utilising the high torque of the turbocharged engine and the technology of the German-engineered ZF 8-speed transmission to start in second gear to minimise slippage and maximise traction.
Mud: Operates like the snow setting, but employs the BorgWarner transfer case to sense slip in one wheel and transfer torque to the appropriate wheel for optimum drive efficiency.
4L: This setting is for the toughest conditions, or when maximum traction is required such as towing through muddy conditions. By engaging the low-range transmission, the torque of the engine is multiplied by a factor of up to 2.48.
Sport: This setting is for enthusiast driving, and ensures the ZF 8-speed transmission holds lower gears for longer before changing up. At speeds below 80 km/h, it locks out the two overdriven gears, making it ideal for urban driving conditions.
Private Fleet Car Review: 2018 Citroen C4 Cactus.
Citroen is known for smart engineering, clever engineering, and its famed quirkiness. The three come together with the C4 Cactus and it’s a car with something out of the ordinary. The smooth, organic, rounded, Cactus features Airbumps. Simple in concept and execution, they’re poly-urethane pockets filled with air. Made from TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane) grade Elastollan AC 55D10 HPM (High Performance Material) the bumps are intended to give extra protection in close quarter situations such as carparks.
The review car was badged OneTone, signifying one all-over shade and in this case, all white. There’s another trim level called Exclusive. Pricing varies more between manual and auto than the two trim levels available. The manual and auto Exclusive are $30592 and $33373 driveaway. The OneTone manual and auto are $31107 and $33888 respectively.
Motorvation is provided by the PSA Group’s 1.2L petrol engine. Peak power is 81kW. Peak torque is a surprisingly good, for the size of the engine, 205Nm. That comes in at 1500rpm and is courtesy of a low boost turbo. The auto is the PSA Group’s EAT6 transmission. It’s a torque converter style with a bit of dual clutch auto feel. 
Under way it’s smooth enough but was sometimes (thankfully rarely) too readily caught in the wrong cog, sending vibrations through the Cactus body as it struggled with revs and torque not being available. From standstill it engages readily when in manual mode, hesitates slightly in auto, and will swap gear swiftly and mostly smoothly, as mentioned. While it’s underway, the engine puts out that familiar three cylinder warble. It’s not unpleasant but can override conversation levels.
There’s two transmissions available for the Cactus: a six speed auto as found in the review car or five speed manual. Fuel tank size is fifty litres and Citroen quotes a combined fuel economy of 5.1L/100km for the auto, 4.7L/100km for the manual. A Sports mode is available at the push of a console mounted button. Top speed is quoted as 188km/h with the zero to one hundred time quoted as 10.7 seconds for the auto but a considerably quicker 9.3 seconds for the manual. This is explained by a 105kg weight difference. The manual tips the scales at 1020kg dry, the auto at 1125kg.
It’s compact too, featuring an overall length of just 4157mm. The rear houses a handy 358L cargo bay that increases to 1170L when the rear seats fold. The cloth wrapped seats themselves are comfy enough but lack suitable side support for the front row. The rear seats are slightly slabby but due to the width (1729mm overall) there’s only room for two which is comfortable enough.
Leg room at the front is superb and rear leg room is also quite good. Headroom should pose no problem unless you’re two metres plus in height.
The inside has a theme. It’s something along the lines of a suitcase, with the door handles rounded and with a leather like material and the glovebox has two latches, one of which opens the glovebox, and look like those found on a suitcase. The top of the glovebox has bumps that mirror the bumps outside and the door trims are embossed with something similar. 
There’s power window switches for the front only and they’re not auto Up/Down. The rear windows are popout in nature, with a lever mechanism, but don’t go down at all. The dash colour is a pink hued one called Habana over fish scaled plastic, contrasting with the black plastic abutting the windscreen and the rest of the interior trim.
A slightly fiddly seven inch touchscreen houses all of the controls for audio, driver settings, aircon, car information, and the like. Fiddly in that sometimes more than one press or touch is required to access something like the audio screen, or the aircon screen, which means less concentration on driving. The driver gets a sci-fi inspired display screen, with 1970s look-a-like LCD blocks It’s shows speed and fuel but no revs. Consumption and trip meters are available via the touchscreen but revs aren’t…
The OneTone Cactus is unremarkable in appearance bar the colour coded bumps on the doors and front & rear. The review car was Pearlescent White with matt white (Dune) for the plastic coverings. There are strip LED driving lights above the main headlights ala Jeep Cherokee/Hyundai Kona yet somehow it manages to look better than both, possibly due to the ovoid exterior design. That same Elastollan material also coats sections of both front and rear bumpers. Up top, there’s full length roof rails. The multi-coloured Cactus looks more striking with the contrasts in colours, such as a red and black mix.
Safety levels are good but not great, with Hill Start Assist, reverse camera and six airbags but there’s no kneebag for the driver. Nor are there Blind Spot alerts, Cross Traffic alerts, adaptive cruise control or autonomous braking. There is something unique, though, about the passenger airbag. It’s roof mounted, coming down like a larger pillow.
On road, the suspension provides mostly smooth but sometimes unsettled ride quality. The Cactus is all too easily sent momentarily sideways, even over those dreaded shopping centre speedbumps. It’s also floaty, rather than wafty, wallowing where it should be up/down/stop. This isn’t altogether a bad thing as it does offer a cossetting ride, with no rear perception of harshness in any way. The diamond cut and painted 17 inch alloys are shod with eco-friendly Goodyear EfficientGrip rubber at 205/50 and they do hold on tightly, exhibiting mild understeer and quietly at that.
Brakes are reasonable in hauling down the Cactus and pedal feel is nothing less than adequate. The steering is the same; it’s sometimes natural, sometimes artificial, but never less than adequate in feedback. Warranty is three years or 100,000 kilometres and in early 2018 Citroen Australia were offering free servicing for three years on plate clearance models.
The Daftest Car Names
There seems to be a little rule out there somewhere that states that if something’s in a foreign language, it’s more sophisticated, more desirable and generally cooler. A number of cars and other vehicles available on the Australian market have names that fall into this category, such as the VW Amarok (Amarok means “Wolf”), the Porsche Carrera (Carrera means “Race) and the Alfa Romeo Mito (Mito means “Myth”). And a lot of them kind of work in the original language (even so we keep hearing that Pajero is the Spanish for “wanker”, although they were popular enough in some Latin American countries, nevertheless). Some don’t, like the Maserati Quattroporte, which sounds cool until you realise that “quattroporte” merely means “four doors” – it doesn’t get more uninspired than that.
Some cars intended for the Asian market also have a go at trying to use a cool foreign language, namely English, and fail. Badly. Some of them even made it onto the market over here, making you feel like a twit when you tried asking the salespeople for them. Here’s a selection of some of the ones that made me snigger in no particular order so you can get a chuckle out of them too. And maybe this might make you stop and think a little bit before you buy that shirt (or get that tattoo) with Chinese or Japanese characters you can’t understand just in case the reverse happens and you provide your Asian friends with something to laugh at in return.
A Legend Returns: 2019 Jeep Cherokee Details Unveiled.
As promised in late 2017, Jeep has released in January details of the forthcoming 2018/2019 Jeep Cherokee range. Here’s the news.
Range.
Latitude, Latitude Plus, Limited, Overland, Trailhawk, will be the nameplates available for customers.
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