In the middle of last year, we were invited to test the first car of the Chinese brand Geely to set foot on home soil – Coolray. The compact car is already on sale in our country, and recently the company, which has brands such as Volvo Cars, Lotus, Zeekr and others under its umbrella, started sales of its latest model in our country – Cityray. Although it is a bit confusing at first glance, in fact the model whose name begins with “City” and suggests an urban orientation is the larger of the two, being positioned in the B-SUV segment or more familiar to European buyers, a competitor to models such as Kia Sportage, Hyundai Tucson, VW Touareg, Nissan Qashqai and others.
Exterior
The design of the Cityray can be described as “passive-aggressive“ with elements such as the large front grille, the multitude of air ducts in the front and the LED headlights with vertical daytime running lights, connected by a luminous strip along the entire front part.
This motif is also observed at the rear, where another luminous strip connects the boomerang-shaped lights, and just below them are two fake air vents. The real ones, however, are the four exhaust tips, which are surrounded by an equally sporty-looking diffuser. Above the tailgate is an additional spoiler with a centrally located brake light, resembling that of Formula 1 cars.
As for the side line, we find a slightly sloping silhouette, which is visually complemented by the line of the rear windows and the columns in black piano lacquer. The rims are available in 19 inches with an option for a two-tone finish, and plastic elements in the lower part of the doors and around the fender arches reinforce the feeling of an SUV presence. The dimensions are respectively length - 4510mm, wheelbase - 2701mm, width 1865mm and height 1650mm.
Interior
Fully in tune with the latest trends in automotive fashion, the interior is extremely clean with a minimum number of buttons. The central place on the dashboard is occupied by a 13.2-inch screen, which surprises with high resolution and good picture quality. Along with it, a 10.25-inch screen is located in front of the driver, which provides information about all the data the driver needs while driving, something we are increasingly seeing in many other models. As we already mentioned, the buttons are kept to a minimum, with them mainly on both sides of the steering wheel, a mechanical button for the hazard lights, the start-stop button, the handbrake and the windows on each of the doors.
Although this type of layout probably has its fans, we prefer the presence of some buttons, and we would certainly note the inconvenient adjustment of the mirrors via the central display (in Tesla style), as well as the option to open the panoramic roof, solely using the screen, although these functions can be brought out to a panel for easy access by briefly pulling at the top of the display. The operating system supports Apple CarPlay, but not Android Auto, and instead there is an AutoDo application available, which can project your smartphone screen onto the central screen.
Despite the already mentioned minuses, the Cityray interior impressed us with the quality of the materials. Unlike most competitors and certainly in complete contrast to most people's opinion of Chinese cars, the new Geely model has pleasant-to-the-touch materials with artificial leather for the seats, steering wheel and door panels. The plastics are extremely soft to the touch, especially in places that are often touched.
The front seats are comfortable with solid lateral support and electric adjustment, with the driver's seat also having memory. Despite the high center console, knee room is sufficient, as is the head room for a person of 1.90 m. The panoramic roof can be opened halfway or completely closed with a black textile blind.
The space in the rear seats also surprised us, as when adjusting the front seat for our driving style, an adult with a height of 1.90m in the back has enough knee and head room. Heated rear seats are also available, which split 60/40.
The trunk has a volume of 571 liters with the seats up and 1271 liters with the seats down, and a surprise here is the presence of a spare tire, something that most European manufacturers have neglected for years.
Drivetrain and Features
The Geely Cityray is built on the BMA 2.0 + GEEA 2.0 platform, combining a 1.5-liter four-cylinder gasoline engine and a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission. The engine has a power of 174 horsepower and 290 newton meters, which are transmitted only to the front wheels. and acceleration from 0 to 100 km / h takes 7.9 seconds.
In our drive on a country road with bends, the car performed surprisingly well, with the steering wheel being responsive and giving you feedback from the road, and the lean in the turn is tolerably small for this class. As for straight-line acceleration, it takes 7.9 seconds to 100 km/h and despite the previously mentioned aggressive elements in the exterior, this is certainly not the car you should buy if you are looking for a fast SUV for pleasant emotions related to gasoline in the blood. However, the car does not feel slow in any sense and has enough power for calm driving and faster overtaking when necessary.
Three driving modes are offered, with us spending more time in Comfort and Sport, which honestly do not offer much difference except for the slightly stiffer steering wheel and slightly higher revs when changing gears. As for the transmission, as we have already mentioned, it is a so-called “wet“ dual clutch and performs very well, both in extra-urban driving and in urban traffic. Fuel consumption is between 7 and 8 liters per 100 kilometers depending on driving style.
Price
Chinese automakers are doing their best to enter the European market and displace already established brands in the local market, with some focusing on offering extremely low prices, while others are betting on cutting-edge technology and style. We can say that Geely is aiming for the golden mean, offering the Cityray model with a price of 56,699.51 BGN for a base car at the moment and 61,589.09 BGN for one with the highest level of equipment. We tested the average equipment level, which is available for 59,633.26 BGN and, at least in our opinion, offers all the necessary extras and driving assistants, including Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB), Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC), Lane Keeping Assist (LKA), Blind Spot Monitoring System (BSD), Lane Departure Warning (LDW) and others.
Conclusion
As we already mentioned, Geely is also part of the “new“ Chinese manufacturers, although this only applies to Europe and although some of the customers of well-known brands in our country and in the rest of the Old Continent will probably have a hard time trusting something new and unknown, we can certainly say that Cityray is not inferior to its competitors and can boldly fight with the established names in the popular crossover class.