Haval more like a Hovel

I was buying a new car - my very first new car - and did a lot of online research etc and came up with the Haval H1 as a good price/deal. It looks good and all the reviews mentioned NOTHING about the lack of power.

The car itself is NOT recommended for anything except short trips/town driving. It accelerates like a slug on cannabis. Which basically means no overtaking if you can't manage to get up a fair speed first.

To quote a friendly mechanic (not from Haval) who has looked into the problem for me: "The real issue is that it is a relatively small engine that develops 69kw ( about 92 horsepower) at 6000 rpm and torque of 138nm which is about the same as a 1300 Toyota. It is not really going to get any better as it gets older. This is probably why the Haval H2 also has a 1500 engine but is turbocharged to up the power to 105kw (about 140 horsepower) As a brief comparison looking at a few non-turbo 1500cc models Haval 69kw 138nm Honda 88kw 145nm Hyundai 91kw 156nm Ford 82kw 138nm" (end quote)

My issue is that Paul Gerber - a sales manager at Haval Malmesbury - completely misrepresented the car to me. Something I cannot prove - but as a buyer when i asked several times about the sluggish feel to the car he assured me that this was due to the new engine and once it is 'broken in' it would greatly improve.

This was of course not true - something I understand now - now that i sit with a really poorly performing vehicle and can only trade or sell at a great loss. Of course Haval Malmesbury will take no responsibility for any of this.

So yes - it's a case of buyer beware - but in my defence I had no way of knowing what i was being told was untrue. (limited to online searches which told me very little at the time - me not being a mechanically-minded person at all).

So i would NOT recommend the Haval H1 as a good ride unless you dont mind driving around at speeds of 80kmph or less and dont ever need to overtake or tow anything.

(the irony is that i also had a towbar fitted)