According to Autostat, in 2020, the Chinese crossover Geely Coolray was purchased by 5600 of our compatriots, which allowed the model to enter the top 10 best-selling Chinese cars in our market. The first place in the ranking is occupied by Coolray’s brother, the Geely Atlas model, which was sold in Russia in the amount of 7300 units. Not to say that the Chinese are storming the Russian market, LADA Granta with its 126 cars over the past year is still unattainable for guests from the Middle Kingdom. And 000 Renault Logan cars, which closes the top 36 sales in Russia, remain an exorbitant figure for Chinese brands. But the trend of growth in sales of Chinese cars in our country is clearly visible, the same Geely is growing rapidly in the quality of its models, which, of course, has a positive effect on the brand’s sales in the vastness of our country.
The Geely Coolray model is a representative of urban crossovers, which outwardly resembles a raised hatchback from some angles. A cute car with its own face, which is unexpected to see in a Chinese brand. True, the appearance of the car is a little good-natured, it lacks aggression. And the red trim inside the narrow grille reminds me of a girl kissing her lips together.
In general, I liked the Coolray’s appearance: a pleasant body design with its own charisma. It is a pity that now only a monochromatic version is available on the market, the car in a two-tone body will not be presented yet due to difficulties with the supply of paint from BASF.
The Geely Coolray salon is also pleasant in design, with its own solutions that do not overlap with other models on the market. The interior looks especially good in a two-tone design: a red trim on the dashboard and contrasting inserts throughout the cabin make it more attractive, although some, of course, may not like it. There are no particular questions about the quality of the materials. The upper part, which is always in sight, is made of high-quality soft plastic, on the front panel even under the leather with stitching. There is also an imitation leather dashboard visor and soft inserts on the door panels. Metal inserts are made with high quality, so you don’t even want to find fault with these elements. And at night, the interior is complemented by some semblance of atmospheric lighting, which is very neatly inscribed in the decorative elements. Yes, below the gaze level, everything is not so rosy, the lower the plastic, the coarser, but you can’t call it very cheap either. For its price category, the interior makes a good impression, and there is no unpleasant chemical odor in it, typical for some Chinese, which should also be attributed to the pluses.
I get comfortable behind the wheel, only the steering wheel adjustment for reach is a little lacking, and the short seat cushion, devoid of an elevator in the front, attracts attention. And in general, it is not bad, for those who are a little shorter in stature, it will be very good. Yes, the driver’s seat in our configuration is electrically adjustable, while the front passenger’s seat will always be mechanically adjustable. The seats here look great, as in many Chinese people, but what is most interesting is that they are comfortable when landing, moderately stiff, with the correct profile and developed lateral support. These, of course, are not Volvo seats, although it cost Geely to steal these luxurious seats from themselves, but also not the shapeless squeezed seats, like some representatives of Chinese brands. Coolray seats are not bad for city trips, but on a long trip you already start to get tired in them.
There are no questions about the review, although the racks are wide at the bottom, they are shifted back, so they do not interfere with you. The side mirrors are medium in size but easy to navigate, plus they are complemented by a blind spot monitoring system. True, it is worth complaining that the wiper on the driver’s side leaves too wide a strip, which in bad weather will affect visibility, plus for some reason there is no rain sensor in Coolray. Embarkation and disembarkation do not cause problems, the car is not high, and the doors completely close the thresholds, although the latter still manage to get dirty, but not from the sides, but from above.
By myself, with a height of 187 cm, I sit down comfortably, there is a lot of space from below, my knees do not rest against the back of the chair, and there is a small margin above my head, thanks to specially made niches. Yes, if it were not for these niches, in the presence of a large panoramic roof with a hatch, I would definitely hit my head against the ceiling, but the designers have foreseen this moment, so you can be calm at the top of your head. The only thing is that getting in and out in the back is not the most comfortable, the doorways at the bottom are narrow, plus you kind of waddle over the rear arch before falling into the seat. The Isofix mounts are located along the edges of the rear sofa between the cushions, but the brackets are shallow so that installing a child seat is not a problem. But for some reason, the manufacturer did not measure the distance from Isofix to the seat belt buckle, and as a result, the latter tightly adjoins the seat frame, so you have to sweat to use it. The child himself, with all his might, will not be able to buckle or unfasten while in a child seat or booster.
If there are four seats in the city crossover, although even a fifth person will be able to sit in the back in the center, since the central tunnel is quite small, Coolray also has a quite decent trunk with a volume of 450 liters. The luggage compartment is correct in shape, plus it has an average loading height. By folding the backrests of the rear sofa separately from the passenger compartment, which form a decent slide, we can further increase the amount of usable space. The luggage compartment door of a Chinese car is not electrically operated, and the opening button is positioned in such a way that it is constantly dirty. A stowaway is hidden underground.
Media system in Geely Coolray with 10.25-inch touchscreen IPS-display with HD resolution and good oleophobic coating. The screen is set aside as if separately and at the same time is not deployed to the driver, which is a little out of trend. There are no questions about the quality of the display, it has a good response, it is bright and contrasting, and information from it is easy to read in any conditions. Of the minuses, I will note too thin fonts in the interface, which are difficult to read on the go, but the fact that the manufacturer did not bother with the design and just inserted icons from Android, however, in the settings he painted the car beautifully. The system consists of three screens, two with icons for the main items, and one for quick access to some settings related to the car and media system.
The speed of the car’s system is not bad, at least there are no obvious freezes and brakes. There is no built-in navigation in the car; the manufacturer also decided not to spend money on the Apple CarPlay and Android Auto license for our region. To connect a smartphone, it is proposed to use the QDLink application (found only for Android), which allows you to duplicate the smartphone screen, respectively, in this case, you can work with navigation and other software installed on your device. QDLink has its own convenient auto mode, but the applications used on your smartphone will already be displayed in their usual form.
The dashboard is partially virtual, a 7-inch display is installed in the center, covered with a decorative overlay, and on the sides, static information is displayed, which visually makes the dashboard integral. The dashboard display fades almost completely in direct sunlight, however, the digital speedometer data can still be seen on it. You cannot manually change the design of the virtual dashboard, but for different driving modes their own design is provided, which, however, does not differ so much.
From the convenient keys on the steering wheel you can display on-board computer data on the dashboard, there is a separate item for audio with the name of radio stations or songs, but in the item “Phone” the inscription “Idle” is constantly displayed. That is, in theory, you can work with calls directly from the dashboard, but it seems that Geely did not turn this item up and did not set it up to work with our numbers.
If we connect a smartphone via Bluetooth to the car system, we can work with only one device at a time, all data from it is correctly transferred and displayed on the central screen of the media system. On the dashboard, instead of a number / name, you will only see asterisks instead of data. The speakerphone always works correctly, there are no problems here.
For recharging gadgets in the car there are three USB-A, two in the front of the cabin, in a niche under the central tunnel, where it is not very convenient to crawl, and another one is available for passengers in the back. Modern devices charge from the car’s electrical system slowly, so if you want fast charging, you will have to use special adapters. Modern smartphones can be placed either at the bottom of the console, or on a medium-sized shelf on top of it.
On the driver’s assistants, everything is pretty good, so, in Geely Coolray there is a regular cruise control with steering wheel control keys. There is a system for monitoring blind spots with an indication in the far corner of the mirrors, but here it is worth mentioning that the indicators are somehow faded and sometimes slip out of sight. There is an all-round camera with a high-quality picture and even the ability to spin a virtual car on the screen. And also cameras in a circle are activated when the turn signals are turned on, when you are standing or driving no more than 20 km / h, then an additional side view is displayed on the screen. Geely also has an automatic parking system with the possibility of parallel and transverse parking on the right or left side. The system works quite well, but it often locks into place in several passes, although you yourself can park at one time without any problems. Besides, I didn’t really understand how the system looks for free space. Sometimes, driving past huge pockets, she does not even inform about the possibility of parking, although there is so much space that even the Gazelle will stop.
Of the interesting features of the car, it is worth noting the presence of a DVR, which uses the front camera for this, this is not the best solution, since it quickly gets dirty in bad weather. But the very fact of the availability of such an option is pleasant. The camera writes in a resolution of 1280×760, you cannot change it, you can only set the duration of the video segments (1,3 or 5 minutes). In order to activate the recorder, you need to install a microSD memory card up to 128 GB. The recorder unit with a card slot is not very convenient and obvious, under the front passenger seat. To install or remove the card, you must completely move the passenger seat forward, fold the backrest and from the back sofa already find a block under the carpet, where you can already manipulate the card from the side (you can only reach it by touch). In general, the presence of such an option is a pleasant bonus, the disadvantage of which for our climatic zone is only the open position of the lens of the camera used for this purpose.
Comfort options in the car include a heated steering wheel that warms up the entire surface, heated windshield, and heated front and rear seats. The first three options are available only through the menu of the media system, which is very inconvenient. And in general, despite the presence of a separate climate control unit with dedicated buttons and convenient handles, most of the information on its operation is displayed precisely on the display of the media system. The single-zone climate control itself does not work very well in automatic mode, constantly requiring temperature adjustments, since at 20 degrees it can not cook like a child, but at 19.5 it already cools the interior too much.
In terms of comfort, the car is average, in the cabin at city speeds it is quite quiet, only a little noise from the wheels makes its way. But aerodynamic noise appears on the track, with which it becomes already noisy. The car very gently passes large irregularities, but even if not completely, it broadcasts all the little things to the salon, you can even notice it in motion on the trembling salon rear-view mirror.
In Russia, Geely Coolray is presented only in a front-wheel drive version with a single 1.5-liter turbocharged petrol engine of 150 hp. and with a seven-speed robotized gearbox. Such a car accelerates to 100 km / h in 8,4 seconds. The box-engine connection is almost perfectly tuned in Coolray, the car is very lively and pliable, it readily reacts to changes in dynamics and quickly takes gears down. In general, the gearbox works very well, smoothly and accurately engaging the desired gear, and jerks are only slightly noticeable in the first gears. The Chinese crossover is not the most adventurous in driving, there are quite noticeable rolls in the corners, and the control itself is somewhat wadded, so it is more suitable for quiet driving. The car has three driving modes (Eco, Sport and Normal), but the first should be used only in bad weather, as it makes the car slightly sluggish, and the second is not for everybody, since the crossover becomes too jerky. Here the Normal mode is optimal, as it quickly adjusts to different rhythms of movement and does not give up, even if you decide to play a little.
Consumption in mixed driving mode I got about 9.6 liters per 100 km with the declared 6.4 liters. We had a completely fresh car, so over time, its consumption should drop, but it seems to me that it will be about 8 liters per hundred, and 6.4 can be achieved only on the highway.
The stated ground clearance of 196 mm is not a reason to consider Coolray an SUV, moreover, it is front-wheel drive. It’s just that in a city crossover, you can safely move along unclean winter roads and boldly drive off onto a dirt road.
Prices for Geely Coolray in Russia start at 1 rubles, our Flagship package has already cost 319 rubles. The price is fully adequate in the market as well, so now there is even a certain shortage of the model.
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