Long-term update (3) – GWM C20R

I will admit that the C20R has done more family duty than anything else recently. It’s a small car. When I have my nephew’s car seat in the back, there is only room for one more person on the three-seater rear bench. I don’t mind the small boot, as I’ve never been left wanting or needing more and I’ve managed to squeeze in everything I need to in terms of shopping or various bags of random stuff. However, try to get a pram in there. That’s just wishful thinking. But admittedly, this vehicle wasn’t designed to be the family car, so I can’t fault it on that. When it’s just myself and one or two other people in the vehicle, it gets us around with ease and the small dimensions make it easy to park in Cape Town’s busy city centre.

On the mechanical side, I’ve mentioned the starting issues I’ve had in a previous update. GWM was not able to locate the problem but the clutch position sensor was re-adjusted and so far, the problem hasn’t come up again, although there are times when it’s slow to start. Also, the battery drained a few days ago, which left me with a completely dead C20R. Initially I wasn’t entirely sure what the cause could be because the lights were off and the interior lights were set to “off”, so even if a door wasn’t closed properly, it couldn’t be that. Then I discovered that the boot wasn’t shut properly – a problem that everyone who’s driven this car has had because it requires a hard shove for it to shut completely. The car had been parked for a week with a partially open boot, which means that the boot light had been on the entire time. For now, we’re chalking the completely drained battery up to this. To solve this, we hooked the C20R up to the Renault Duster and it was all sorted.

Overall, I’ve been happy enough with this car. It’s actually a pretty decent Chinese vehicle and worth considering if you’re shopping in this segment. I haven’t, however, seen any other C20Rs on the road since taking ownership of this car last October. It could be the fact that it costs a whopping R174 999 and for that price you could get almost any Polo Vivo in the range save for the GT and Maxx or the base Honda Jazz, Kia Rio hatch, Ford Figo, Peugeot 208 and still have change for some extras. Ambitious pricing from GWM, I think.

Mileage on arrival: 2 239 kms
Mileage now: 8 452 kms
Fuel consumption: 9,17 L/100 km

For older posts on this vehicle, click below:
GWM C20R introduction
GWM C20R update