Omoda 5 test drive 2024

Make and model: Omoda 5
Description: Medium-sized SUV, petrol engine with automatic transmission
Price range: £25,235 (plus options)

Omoda says: “Omoda 5 brings UK motorists a stylish fastback design, intuitive technology and exceptional agility, together with a powerful petrol powertrain.”

We say: The Omoda 5 gives you a mid-sized car for the price of a small car, but it lacks the polish of more expensive rivals.

Introduction

You’ve probably never heard of Omoda, but that’s not surprising. It’s a new car brand from China that has only launched in the UK in Autumn 2024. Omoda is a division of the enormous car company Chery, which has been building cars in China for almost 30 years. This same car is sold in some countries as the Chery Omoda 5, so if you have travelled to Asia or Australia over the last couple of years you may have already seen it there.

The first two models that Omoda is launching in Europe are the Omoda 5 – the mid-sized petrol SUV you see here – and its electric twin, the Omoda E5.

What is it?

The Omoda 5 is a mid-sized petrol SUV/crossover, similar in size to a Nissan Qashqai. But it’s priced at the level of a smaller SUV, like a Nissan Juke. Like fellow Chinese manufacturer MG, Omoda is pushing hard on the value-for-money angle.

Unlike other new automotive brands currently flooding into the UK car market, Omoda isn’t going all-in on EVs. Chery believes that there’s still plenty of business to be had in selling petrol and hybrid models, although we’re unlikely to see any diesels. The Omoda 5 has a 1.6-litre petrol engine, and there’ll be a hybrid model joining the range in early 2025.

Who is this car aimed at?

The petrol-powered Omoda 5 will be targeting families, using a well-worn path trodden by many new or revived car manufacturers over the years (MG, Dacia, Kia, Hyundai and others) in offering a new car with plenty of standard equipment for thousands of pounds less than you’d pay for a similarly equipped car from a ‘legacy’ brand.

And being a petrol car, the Omoda 5 will be targeting families who are not yet comfortable with the idea of switching to an electric car. Although the petrol-powered new car market is declining, it’s still comfortably the largest sector of the new car market.

Who won’t like it?

There’s a large element of anti-Chinese sentiment in certain quarters of the media at the moment, so there will be plenty of people who simply won’t consider an Omoda at any price. Beyond that, many car buyers won’t consider a brand they’ve never heard of.

Interestingly, MG has managed to swerve much (but not all) of such criticism thanks to its British name and heritage, while BYD is making headway through a massive marketing blitz and targeting fleet buyers to get lots of cars on the road.

Also, anyone who’s looking for a hybrid model to provide an element of electrification will be disappointed. It’s said to be coming, but not until sometime in 2025.

First impressions

The first thing that grabs your attention on the Omoda 5 is its enormous cross-hatch grille, which appears to fill the entire front end of the car. It’s actually a quite complex design, filled with different shapes and dozens of silver diamond-shaped highlights, but it still looks about two sizes too big for the rest of the vehicle. The electric car, in contrast, has no grille at all.

Omoda’s brochure describes the 5’s styling as “futuristic”, which it may have been 20 years ago. Today, however, it could easily be mistaken for about a dozen other mid-sized crossovers on the market apart from the oversized nose.

Inside is better. The Omoda 5 cabin looks thoroughly modern in design, albeit still somewhat derivative. It has twin high-mounted screens (like every other new car being launched this year), haptic heating controls (which look like they’ve been nicked from a Nissan Ariya) and a prominent wireless mounting point for your phone (just like current Tesla models). But look a bit closer and quite a few of the materials don’t have the same level of quality as you’d find in other household-name cars.

What do you get for your money?

Once we’ve got the first impressions out of the way, it’s time to look a bit harder at exactly what you’re getting for your money with the Omoda 5.

There are two trim levels available; Comfort, which starts at just over £25K, and Noble, which starts at £27K. Rather than regurgitating the entire brochure, it’s enough to say that both models are very well equipped for the money. Wireless charging (including a cooling fan for your phone) with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard, as are auto lights and wipers, adaptive cruise control, front and rear parking sensors, an eight-speaker Sony sound system and a full suite of accident avoidance safety systems.

The extra £1,800 for the Noble grade gets you a sunroof, power tailgate, dual-zone climate control with better particle filtering, and a 360-degree parking camera system. You can also choose bigger wheels and some two-tone colours from the options list, which are not available on the basic version.

Warranty is excellent, covering you for seven years or 100,000 miles (whichever comes first). Servicing is annually or every 10,000 miles, and you get a year’s RAC breakdown cover as standard. If you keep having the car serviced at an official Omoda garage, the breakdown cover is extended by another year up to a maximum of seven years.

We like: Very good standard equipment levels, including safety kit
We don’t like: There’s not much not to like in terms of value

What’s the Omoda 5 like inside?

Your view on the cabin will largely depend on your starting point. If you’re comparing the Omoda 5 to other mid-size SUVs that tend to be a few thousand pounds dearer, it’s easy to see shortcomings. It looks good on a superficial level, but inspect each element a little more closely and it all starts to look a bit more budget.

On the other hand, if you’re comparing the Omoda 5 to small SUVs that cost about the same sort of money, it starts to look far more appealing. Many of those also tend to look like they’ve been lumped with plastics and controls from the bargain basement, so the Omoda 5’s additional size and standard equipment list look far more appealing. The electric E5 is better, which is surprising and makes you wonder why the petrol version gets a lower-rent interior.

There are twin ten-inch screens for driver display and central infotainment controls, plus LED mood lighting, wireless phone charging and a steering wheel copiously loaded up with buttons. The touchscreen menus are not as logically arranged as they should be, and are not the easiest to use on the move. The digital screen in front of the driver is similarly fussy and clumsy in layout, rather than being clear to read on the move, while too much information – like your speed – is easily blocked by the steering wheel and your hands.

The driver’s seat and steering column both feel like they need more adjustment range. Despite being just under six feet tall, I couldn’t pull the steering wheel out far enough to be comfortable. Initially, I pushed the seat back and had my arms outstretched so that my legs were comfortable. But then I couldn’t comfortably reach the central touchscreen so I pulled the seat forward so that my arm position felt more natural, but then my legs felt uncomfortably cramped up.

(Incidentally, this is why you should always test drive a new car before buying, as you could end up with a car that’s incredibly uncomfortable for your particular size and shape.)

The cabin and boot are also not as spacious as you might expect based on the exterior dimensions. Overall, it does feel bigger than a small SUV like a Juke, but it doesn’t have as much room as the Qashqai. Boot space is less than what you get from similarly sized cars, which is not a price issue but more of a design issue.

We like: Plenty of standard kit
We don’t like: Seats and steering column need more adjustment range

What’s the Omoda 5 like to drive?

So, on the surface, the Omoda 5 seems a reasonable bit of kit. But once we get behind the wheel, the story takes a turn for the worse.

The engine and automatic gearbox are not just unpleasant but awful. The gearbox, in particular, seemed to jump around a lot and kicked down far more often than necessary, resulting in a pause followed by a lurch of acceleration. That, in turn, sent the engine revs skyrocketing and made even moderate acceleration a noisy and unruly experience. You need to drive very gently to convince the car to stay in its current gear, which is far more gently than you want to keep up with the ebb and flow of normal traffic.

As well as engine noise, there’s quite a lot of road noise coming from the tyres at all speeds, while wind noise is also higher than similar cars at higher speeds. All in all, the cabin is not a peaceful place to be on a long trip.

The suspension also has a feeling of not-quite-right in terms of how the Omoda 5 rides and handles. In some ways, the ride is quite soft and comfortable. Small bumps are dealt with quite easily, rather than feeling like you’re bouncing around on a car with no suspension. But big shocks, like potholes or speed humps, tend to set off a wallowing wave motion that’s unpleasant. Side-to-side movement when changing direction also triggers a similar movement, with the car feeling like it’s rolling around rather than being firmly tied down.

None of this inspires any real confidence when you’re driving. Even at normal day-to-day driving speeds when you’re not in a hurry, the Omoda 5 is not a relaxing or comfortable car to drive.

On top of being a chore to drive, it’s also not a particularly cheap car to run. Average fuel economy is about 34mpg, which is off the pace for other small-to-medium SUVs.

We like: Ride is smooth on smaller bumps
We don’t like: Larger bumps or movements are unpleasant; gearbox is awful

How safe is the Omoda 5?

The Omoda 5 was tested by Euro NCAP in December 2022 and scored a top five-star grade. It scores well in all four categories (adult protection, child protection, vulnerable road user protection and accident avoidance technology).

Systems like adaptive cruise control, blind spot detection, lane-keeping assist and rear cross-traffic alert are all standard, and all seemed to work perfectly well during our media drive around Surrey and Hampshire.

The only negative here isn’t of Omoda’s making, and that’s the new EU-mandated functions that cause the car to beep and bong at you pretty much non-stop for a variety of reasons: the speed limit has decreased, the speed limit has increased, there’s a school zone, you’re 1mph over the speed limit, you’re not looking at the road (because you’re looking at the screen to work out why it’s beeping at you this time) and so on. It’s awful, but most cars now suffer the same problem.

This is an excellent result overall. What’s even better, from our point of view, is that all of the safety technology is standard on both models, rather than the best stuff costing extra. That earns it 10/10 in this category from us.

Verdict

The Omoda 5 is competent enough, but its major selling point is the fact that the starting price undercuts established names by thousands of pounds. You’re getting a mid-sized car for the price of a small car, but it lacks the polish of more expensive rivals. In many ways, it feels like one of those no-name products you see on Amazon, that undercut the name-brand products on price but don’t have the same material quality once you unpack them.

The cabin is lacking in quality and the driving experience is poor – interestingly, both points are notably better on the E5 electric version, which feels like a newer, improved model compared to the petrol version.

You get plenty of standard equipment for the price. You should feel safe, with a top-notch safety rating from Euro NCAP. But it’s not an enjoyable car to drive or be driven in. And given that cars are meant to be driven, that’s a major problem.

If you’re looking at a brand-new Omoda 5, it would be worth comparing it to a near-new (one-year-old or so) Kia Niro. You won’t get that new car experience, and you’ll lose a year of warranty (although you’d still have six years), but you’ll be getting a better car that will also be cheaper to run.

Similar cars

If you’re looking at the Omoda 5, you might also be interested in these alternatives.

Citroën C3 Aircross | Dacia Duster | Ford Puma | Honda HR-V | Hyundai Bayon | Jeep Renegade | Hyundai Kona | KGM (SsangYong) Tivoli | Kia Niro | MG ZS | Nissan Juke | Peugeot 2008 | Renault Captur | SEAT Arona | Skoda Kamiq | Suzuki Vitara | Toyota Yaris Cross | Vauxhall Crossland | Volkswagen T-Cross

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