As Chinese car brands clamour to enter South Africa it is inevitable that natural market forces will see some players disappear.
Realistically, it would not be possible for our market to sustain so many marques. Especially when most of them offer close variations of similar ingredients.
They all have long specifications lists, big screens, 1.5l turbocharged-petrol power sources and competitive price tags that undercut those of legacy brands’ offerings.
What is bound to set Chinese car firms apart in particular, is proven competence where aftersales service, reliability, parts provision and resale values are concerned.
To that end, a company like Great Wall Motors (GWM) has a strong advantage, as it has been doing business locally since 2007 — making it the oldest Chinese car brand in the country.
The Chery marque also has a competitive edge in terms of familiarity, as it made its appearance here in the late 2000s — under distributorship — which eventually faded, before the brand returned officially in 2021 as a wholly-owned subsidiary.
Now the thing is that Chery has a varied number of related brands, but all of them have opted to set up shop individually, independent of the namesake brand.
You would think it made more sense to combine efforts and work with collective clout.
In fact, it has been reported several times before that if you were to add all the Chery-aligned brands (Chery, Omoda, Jaecoo, Jetour, iCaur and now Lepas), the combined sales would place it just behind market-leader Toyota.
Well, there is likely a longer-term strategy at play, affirmed by Chery’s acquisition of Nissan’s manufacturing assets in Rosslyn and a recent announcement that the Jetour T2 and Jaecoo J5 will be built locally.
Where the Lepas brand fits into the mix is difficult to understand. It really does not appear to offer anything radically different to what is already served by the likes of its cousins.
The Lepas L4 is on par with the Chery Tiggo Cross LiT, Omoda C5 and Jaecoo J5.
It is priced around the same band as these models. The basic Amur version is R299,900; the middle-grade Javan is R369,900 and the fully-loaded Pantera is yours for R419,900.
The service plan is of a five-year/75,000km duration and like the other Chery wares, it also has a five-year/150,000km warranty. Plus that unbelievable 10-year/1,000,000km provision — with various terms and conditions.
Size-wise it is also closely matched with these fellow relations. A 4,405mm length, height of 1,635mm and width of 1,820mm. Luggage space is a useful 458l, with folding rear seats allowing for a quoted 1,284l.
The marketing narrative appears centred on being a facsimile of British brand Jaguar, with seductive feline-inspired cues and the promise of a premium experience, plus a dollop of sharp on-road dynamics. They even feature what looks to be an Amazonian cat of sorts on some of the billboards.
But the L4 is not quite the cheaper Chinese E-Pace you might be expecting.
OK, in fairness, we should acknowledge that Jaguar in South Africa (and globally) is all but extinct: there are simply no new models to buy, because the company is not building cars, as it makes an all-electric switch spearheaded by the controversial Type 00.
Still, unlike Jaguar, the Lepas brand does not really mean much to the average South African buyer. It has no heritage, no history of motorsport triumph, no lineage of sexy sports cars like an E-Type.
Even the name is an awkward thing. Apparently the correct pronunciation is “lep-erse” as if saying “leopard” and not “leap-ass” like a jumping donkey. And not “leh-pahs” as if you were Inspector Clouseau.
Anyway, name aside, there are other criticisms. For the most part it looks good, but those wheels appear cartoonishly small against the large surface area of the side profile. The wheels themselves are not tiny, at 17 inches in the Javan and Pantera. The base Amur has 16-inch rollers.
On to the cabin. It looks modern, but the materials used are not as refined as experienced with the Tiggo Cross and Jaecoo J5. In the Lepas, buyers will find hard plastics aplenty.
Under the hood is the widely-used 1.5l turbocharged-petrol (108kW/225Nm) linked to a six-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission. The sensations are much the same as they are in models that share this powertrain set-up. Aside from the low-speed clunkiness of the gearbox, shifts are smooth on the move and pace is adequate. Average consumption over the week of testing was 7.9l/100km.
There is nothing particularly sporty or dynamic about the way the front-driving Lepas L4 handles, but it is sufficiently comfortable. Though again, the Tiggo Cross and Jaecoo J5 struck me as superior in overall refinement.
Our Pantera tester demonstrated the expectedly high level of standard gear. Ventilated front seats, leatherette upholstery and adaptive cruise control are among the niceties.
Even the base Amur offers fair specification, but the airbag count here and in the middle-grade car is four, with six on the range-topper.
A strange thing happened on the last day of my test. Heading to the vehicle in the morning about to make a trip to the airport, it was completely dead.
This left me baffled — because the car has automatic interior and exterior lights, so leaving those on by mistake is just about impossible.
The fleet manager gave the vehicle a boost with jumper leads and apparently all was fine, with no clear giveaway as to why or how the car would have run itself down flat overnight. Maybe it really does think it is a member of the Coventry brand’s portfolio, reputation for gremlins included.
While the L4 is not quite the junior Jaguar it is styled to be, it is an acceptable compact crossover whose looks will resonate with some buyers.
But if you wanted a compact crossover from the Chery ecosystem, as noted earlier, the Tiggo Cross and Jaecoo J5 make better impressions with their plusher finishes.
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