MPV, Which Will You Choose for Your Family?
2007.04.19
The automobile market is undertaking astonishing change. From the SUV upsurge in the year 2003 to the torrent for minicar in 2006, the Chinese consumers’ purchasing conception had changed to reasonable consumption from the original pursue for the big and all-sided. Indicated by the associated data in 2006, the families or the individuals have become the absolute main force in the domestic automobile market, and there is an interesting phenomena about the data—the increasing sales of the high-class Business Purpose Vehicle has indicated that the direction of the consumption by the families and individuals has been converted from simple occupancy expenses based choice to the demand based choice.
At present, there are many choices in the market, and we choose four household oriented MPV to introduce to you.
LANDWIND Fashion, Full of Happiness, Oriented for Household
In May 2006, the Fashion come to the market ceremoniously in Beijing, and it’s slogan “Home full of happiness” indicated that it was a MPV designed for the household. As the first in the domestic market, it has taken the preemptive opportunities. Fashion, the first MPV oriented to household, has obtained the recognition of the consumers after one year since it’s coming into the market. The outline of Fashion originated from the world top designer Justyn Norek of Italia based I.DE.A company. The overall sculpture is brief, fluent, fashionable, and distinctly designed. The taillight is a straight set of different items, and red and white, transparent and shiny. The profile join the side strap smoothly, forming an integrated mass with obvious European style.
As a “Uniform Resource Automobile”, the engine of Fashion is developed with the advanced world technical levels by the world famous engine engineering company FEV (Germany). This 2.0 L gasoline engine is manufactured with pure aluminum alloy cylinder cap, 4 jars, and 16 air valves. The maximum power could reach 102kw; performance per liter is 51kw/L; and the maximum moment of torque is 186nm. The indexes that most represent the dynamic behavior of the engine are on the leading place in the engines at the same level. With very good startability and accelerator response ability, it features in low level vibration, noise, oil consumption, dischargement (GB3). In addition, all the tests for the engine are in accordance with the standards of the Germany designing company, so to give the user a most reliable engine. The chassis is matched, adjusted and gauged by the Germany FEV and English MIRA in order to guarantee the stability and safety during performance driving.
As a passenger car Fashion possesses favorable driving comforts and operationality，and it is also provided with a broad space and elastically changeable spatial array. It is suitable for daily use and travel, and all its characteristics, the fashionable outline, the vigorous momentum and the easy management, have well translated the orientation “Home full of happiness”.
Although designed independently, Fashion stem from the whole global resource system. The around 100,000 price aims at the Chinese family car definitely. The emergence of Fashion acts as an important role that has brought not only the impact on the household automobile market, but the impact on the entire Chinese automobile market.
NISSAN LIVINAGENISS，for Household and Travel, Oriented for the High End
In the recreational vehicle market which is a bit high-class, the outline of LIVINAGENISS does not dazzle the eyes, but seems to be a Business Purpose Vehicle in some sense. Different from the large business MPV, LIVINAGENISS is more compact. The large triangle headlight and the inverted T shaped chromium plating inlet valve bank make the head of the car plumper. The wheel rim and the bumper is designed to be muscle like. The back window of the car adopts a V shaped design and matched with the waist-high line, and then it seems manly a little similar with Touran.
There are 8 combined modes for the seats of LIVINAGENISS, and that makes LIVINAGENISS easy in spatial change. The “Pulling” folding way of the back row seats need only a simple action to obtain a smooth and ample space for storage in the back of the car. After the folding of the two back row seats, the room for storage can reach 946L. Beside the broad space, the narrow space can amount to 25.
The most high end model of LIVINAGENISS is provided with remote intelligent key, with which you could start the car without taking it out. In the safety deployment aspect, LIVINAGENISS is provided with common ABS, EBD and double air bag. The EBD of LIVINAGENISS could arrange the brake force according to the number of the personnel on board, and it is a very necessary and advanced deployment especially for a 7 seats recreational vehicle.
Although LIVINAGENISS is oriented to household, its present price is obvious for the middle and high end consumption group. In the yet unformed household MPV market, LIVINAGENISS may occupy the high end market first.
Hainan PREMACY， Famous Old MPV，Double Oriented
“5 seats +2 seats，business + life” is Primacy’s early advertising message. The double orientation made PREMACY recognized in many aspects in the early years. Nowadays, PREMACY is more and more apt to household. The Japanese style has the complete show out in the outline and the inner decoration. PREMACY are smart in shape, and the dimension make it hard to relate it to the 7 seats.
The flexibility of the inner space is thoroughly embodied in PREMACY. But the room for the back row seats still seems to be narrow. The children or the pets may feel comfortable in these seats, but it may be repressed for an adult.
PREMACY adopts the double roof cam shaft and VICS changeable inertial air intake system, the maximum power of which is 90 kW (6,000 r/min). The maximum moment of torque of the 1.8L engine is 160 N•m (4,000 r/min), the minimum in the five models. In most cases the motive force can do the job with skill and ease, but if there are five people on board or that all seats are taken, its force could only satisfy the basic needs.
CHERY V5, Strongly Independent, Mainly for Business
With a broad body and wild outline, CHERY V5 embodies dense commercial feeling. Although V5 is oriented both for business and household, the features of the product lean to commercial use unavoidably.
The broad body with a 2.0 output volume engine makes V5 an impression of “Little horse drags the big carriage” in the handling. In the daily driving, MITSUBISHI 4G64 engine expose its characteristics—high moment of torque and noise. While starting, you may feel like being pulled on your back as the mid-range cars, but when the speed is raised further, you may feel that when the decibel is increasing rapidly you cannot obtain the compatible speed. In my opinion, CHERY V5 should improve its noise control.
| Items | Fashion | Hainan PREMACY | CHERY V5 | NISSAN LIVINAGENISS |
| L (mm) ×W(mm)×H(mm) | 4,410×1,768×1,640 | 4,295×1,705×1,570 | 4,662/1,820/1,590 | 4,420/1,690/1,590 |
| Wheel base (mm) | 2,710 | 2,670 | 2,800 | 2,600 |
| Front gage (mm) | 1,500 | 1,465 | __ | 1,470 |
| Rear track (mm) | 1,487 | 1,470 | __ | 1,475 |
| Peak torque ( Nm/rpm) | 186/4,000～4,500 | 160/4,000 | 198Nm／3,000 | 174/4,800 |
| Peak power（kw） | 102 | 90 | 95 | 93/5,200 |
| Peak performance per litre（kw/L） | 51 | 50 | — | |
| Output volume（L） | 1.998 | 1.840 | 2.390 | 1.8 |
| Emission level | GB 3 | GB 2 | GB 3 | GB 3 |
| Price(10,000) | 9.58～10.98 | 10.98～13.36 | 10.98-13.98 | 13.88-16.23 |
The Pattern Is Formed Gradually, Who Will Win？
In conclusion of the above four models, they are much different in designing conception, motive force, chassis and outline. But their orientations are very similar. As the representatives of the household MPV, the four models could represent the main group of the Chinese household MPV at present.
Among them, Fashion launch an attack first by its favorable driving ability and high cost performance; as the representative of the joint venture brands, LIVINAGENISS is oriented to household, but its high price is obviously for the high income family; PREMACY and CHERY V5 have their own excellent performance, but their orientation is obscure. In the household MPV market, the competition pattern in price is gradually formed, and the rivalship has already surfaced. The price, maintaining expenses and brand influence will be the key factors for the success!