Yin Tongyue, the head of Chery Group, always emphasizes that Starway should be made into Chery’s "Audi", but from the actual sales results, Starway has not caused much trouble before. However, recently, the listing of a heavy new car of Xingtu brand may refresh the value of its own B-class SUV and lead Xingtu brand to stand firm in the 200,000-class SUV market.
On February 21st, Starway Eta Ursae Majoris was officially listed, and the guide price range of the new car was 1528-202800 yuan. As the first product created by Starway M3X Mars Architecture 2.0, the new car has a good performance in terms of design, dynamic performance and vehicle intelligence. Let’s take a look.
First of all, in terms of design, Eta Ursae Majoris’s front face is made of a large-sized diamond-cut borderless grille with a penetrating light set, which has a strong sense of science and technology and a strong "future mech wind", but for some people who have "secret fear", it may take a while to adapt. On the side of the car body, a sharp waistline runs through the car body, and with the design of hidden door handles, sports multi-frame wheels and suspended roof, it is still in place to create a sports atmosphere.
The tail is also full of attention, and the split brake light is integrated with the tail spoiler; The slim through taillight adopts stepped design on both sides, which widens the horizontal visual effect well; The layout of the blackened exhaust gas from the two sides below is also enough to scare people. On the whole, it does smell like a performance SUV.
In terms of interior, the design of 24.6-inch integrated curved double screen, double-width steering wheel, through air conditioning outlet and piano paint panel has rendered the technology and luxury inside the car well. In addition, the car also uses a large area of soft packages and stitching, which shows that Starway Eta Ursae Majoris is very cheap this time.
Secondly, in terms of intelligence, this 24.6-inch curved dual screen is equipped with the Lion Smart Cloud LION5.0 car networking system, built-in Qualcomm 8155 smart chip, and has a rich intelligent ecology, integrating common APP software such as WeChat, Meituan, Gaode Navigation and iQiyi.
On the level of intelligent assisted driving, Eta Ursae Majoris provides L2.9 intelligent assisted driving system, and is equipped with Horizon J3 assisted driving chip, which includes 21 basic functions of ADAS and 11 high-order intelligent assisted driving functions, and can realize the functions of autonomous parking service, automatic overtaking lane change, full-speed adaptive cruise, automatic ramp up and down, etc. In addition, Eta Ursae Majoris is equipped with a 50-inch AR-HUD, which can provide 50-inch clear imaging at a line-of-sight of 7.5 meters, and subsequently support OTA upgrade.
Furthermore, in terms of ride experience, Eta Ursae Majoris has a length, width and height of 4,781/1920/1,671 mm and a wheelbase of 2,815 mm. Although the size of the car is only quite satisfactory in terms of parameters, Eta Ursae Majoris has given enough configurations in terms of ride comfort: NAPPA leather seats are used for the main driver, as well as headrest audio, electrically adjustable leg rest and seat ventilation/heating/massage; Extra electric foot rest and queen’s co-driver with five massage modes; Equipped with electric adjustment of rear backrest angle and rear independent fresh air system. To put it simply, looking at SUV models at the price of 150,000-200,000, they rarely give users as many seats/comfort configurations as Eta Ursae Majoris, so it is no wonder that Eta Ursae Majoris dares to say that he is on par with luxury models at the level of 400,000.
In terms of driving control, in terms of power, Eta Ursae Majoris is equipped with a 2.0TGDI+7DCT gold power combination, with a maximum power of 192kW and a peak torque of 400 N m. The fuel consumption under WLTC is 7.5 L/100 km. In terms of handling, Eta Ursae Majoris is equipped with a brand-new flying fish extrasensory chassis, which integrates many advanced technologies and configurations, such as CDC electromagnetic suspension system, Soft stop system, chassis hydraulic vibration isolation system, all-terrain technology system, all-scene intelligent four-wheel drive system, intelligent brake-by-wire system and so on.
To put it simply, Eta Ursae Majoris’s product strength is definitely worthy of its price, so how is its competitiveness compared with competing products of the same level/price?
Let’s talk about independent competing products first. According to Eta Ursae Majoris’s guide price range, we can basically determine that its biggest competitor is BYD Song PLUS DM-i (the price is 15.48-218,800), and the latter is a PHEV model, which has the advantage of being able to get a green license.
However, after a detailed comparison between the two vehicles, we can actually find that, thanks to the vehicle positioning and cost advantages, Eta Ursae Majoris, as a B-class fuel SUV, has a larger seating space and more comfortable configuration, a lower cost than Song PLUS DM-i in terms of intelligent configuration and interior materials, and finally its four-wheel drive version has a lower entry threshold than Song PLUS DM-i (the former is 174,800, and the latter is 20.77).
The weakness of Xingtu Eta Ursae Majoris is that the daily car cost will be higher. Although the fuel economy of its 2.0T engine is good, the fuel consumption of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is 7.6L/100km, but the fuel consumption as low as 4.4L/100km compared with Song PLUS DM-i is still not enough.
Let’s compare the joint venture competing products. Here we list two Japanese veterans at the same price, Toyota RAV4 Rongfang and Honda CR-V. We choose Eta Ursae Majoris four-wheel drive exclusive edition (202,800) /CR-V 2023 two-wheel drive Fengshang edition (201,900) /RAV4 Rongfang 2022 two-wheel drive fashion Plus edition (200,800) with three overlapping price versions.
Through comparison, it can be concluded that the advantages of Eta Ursae Majoris are space (the other two are compact SUVs) and dynamic performance (the maximum power of CR-V 1.5T version is 142kW, and the peak torque is 243N·m；; RAV4 Rongfang 2.0L version has a maximum power of 126kW and a peak torque of 209N·m), configuration and intelligent level. At the same time, Eta Ursae Majoris’s four-wheel drive purchase threshold is lower than them. However, the weakness lies in two aspects: brand power and value-keeping rate. At the same time, Starway Eta Ursae Majoris only provides five seats, while CR-V provides a five-seventh seat layout, which will be less attractive to families with multiple births.
Write it at the end
To sum up, Starway Eta Ursae Majoris’s product strength in driving control, configuration, space, intelligence, materials and other aspects, combined with its price, really has a good competitiveness. However, as we all know, the 200,000-class SUV market in which Starway Eta Ursae Majoris is located needs to strive for service and brand value in addition to technology and product strength. In these aspects, it depends on how Starway brand can improve its marketing and service level.
Then the question is, within the car purchase budget of 150,000-200,000 yuan, will you choose Xingtu Eta Ursae Majoris, Song PLUS DM-i, or a Japanese joint venture SUV with the same price? Welcome to leave a message and discuss in the comment area.
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