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The Chery Tiggo is a seven-seat SUV with the option of a plug-in hybrid engine – all for the price of a European hatchback. What’s more, the interior is a match for much posher motors from the likes of Audi and Mercedes, but the driving experience isn’t anywhere near as good as those cars.

It’s a bit like buying the cheapest coffee machine on Amazon. It might not be quite as refined an experience, but does that matter when the end result is still a tasty coffee? Oh, and it costs half the price of the latest Ninja contraption.

Finding alternatives to cross shop the Tiggo 8 with is actually rather tricky, because it’s so much cheaper than other seven-seat SUVs such as the Peugeot 5008 and Kia Sorento. Similarly priced five-seaters include the Kia Sportage and Citroen C5 Aircross if you don’t really need the third row, but then there’s also Chery’s own Tiggo 7 to consider.

Okay so the Tiggo 8’s exterior design doesn’t quite have the gravitas of an Audi or BMW, and it’s a touch generic from the side and rear. But up front it’s smart enough, with a big imposing grille and chunky front bumper.

It’s the interior that really impresses, though. The materials and solid build quality feel a match for those more premium, more expensive alternatives. You get a big infotainment display in the centre that has a crisp resolution and responds quickly, which is fortunate because the downside is that pretty much everything runs through the screen. That means there are some annoyingly clunky functions, such as switching to the climate controls from Apple CarPlay or Android Auto (both of which come as standard).

Space is excellent, which is good news for families, particularly those with lanky teenagers or babies – the rear seats have loads of room for your legs, which means that it’s easy to fit a bulky child seat. The third row isn’t exactly spacious, but young kids will be fine.

With the third row in place, though, the boot is tiny at 117 litres – that’s about a third of the space you get in a Peugeot 5008 – and we couldn’t even fit two cabin bags inside. Drop the third row and the boot is bigger than most families will ever need, but again, it is down on the 5008 and the Kia Sorento in terms of pure capacity.

You have a choice of petrol or plug-in hybrid engines. We’ve only tested the latter but it should be the pick of the pair. Even matched with the top-spec trim it’s less than £37,000, which is incredible value for a plug-in hybrid seven-seat SUV. We even saw over 50mpg in our time with the car, which is a decent return.

There is a caveat to all this positivity, and that’s how the Chery Tiggo 8 drives. The hybrid is smooth and sufficiently powerful, but the suspension never really settles on rough roads and it’s quite noisy at higher speeds. The light steering is good around town, but on twisty roads it’s so vague that placing the car in corners isn’t intuitive.

So, keen drivers steer clear, but if you’re looking for a car that’s spacious enough for the family, easy to drive around town and feels much more expensive than it is, look no further. See how much more you could save with Á«»¨Ö±²¥â€™s Chery Tiggo 8 deals as well as Tiggo 8 lease deals. You can also browse the latest used car stock from our network of trusted dealers, and when it’s time to sell your car, Á«»¨Ö±²¥ can help with that, too.

The Chery Tiggo 8’s trump card is its price. If you’re looking at the petrol model, prices start at about £28,500, or it’s £33,500 for the plug-in hybrid. In both cases it’s £3,000 extra to step up to the Summit trim, which absolutely feels worth it given the fact you get heated and ventilated seats in the front two rows, a head-up display and a Sony sound system. These are all things you wouldn’t be surprised to pay extra for on cars that cost twice the price.

For context, the natural alternatives are the Kia Sorento and Peugeot 5008, which start at £43,000 and £40,000 respectively, or £47,000 and £44,000 respectively for the plug-in hybrids. The Dacia Jogger is the seven-seat outlier, starting at about £19,000, but then it’s nowhere near as posh nor tech-filled as any of the cars mentioned above.

The Chery Tiggo 8 is disappointing to drive, particularly on a country road, but it’s much better around town

In town

Surprisingly, considering this is a relatively large car, the Chery Tiggo 8 is at its best around town. That’s particularly true in the hybrid, because you can scoot around on silent electric power, and when the engine does kick in it’s not too noticeable.

You sit high so visibility is good, though the rear-view mirror is odd and makes it tricky to judge how far behind other cars are. The light steering makes tight manoeuvres easy, and the standard-fit surround-view cameras make it easy to judge how much space you have.

On the motorway

We tested the plug-in hybrid and found its acceleration sufficient, so you’ll have no issues getting up to speed on slip roads. However, the premium illusion created by the posh interior is somewhat broken by the fact there’s quite a lot of wind and road noise in the cabin. Adaptive cruise control is fitted as standard, which is very nice to have at the price.

On a twisty road

It’s twisty roads where the Chery Tiggo 8 really disappoints. Around town the suspension can be a bit fidgety, but at higher speeds, on broken country roads, the car never really settles down. Worse, if you hit a bump mid-corner it can jolt through the steering wheel, which isn’t particularly pleasant. And because the steering is so light, it can be quite difficult to judge where you’re placing the car when turning. If you want a family car that feels planted on a twisty road you should consider the Peugeot 5008 or Kia Sorento (or pretty much anything else, to be honest).

Interior space is excellent, but the boot capacity is less than alternatives

Space in the front is good and you sit nice and high, though the driver’s seat doesn’t go very low at all, so you might be disappointed if you like a sportier feel.

There’s loads of storage throughout the car with huge door bins that can take a big bottle, a cubby beneath the armrest which has a neat split opening, two cup holders and a large space under the centre console. You also get a hook for hanging bags next to the glovebox.

There are two pads for phones, with only one offering wireless charging, though it is very fast and has a cooling fan underneath. You also get a USB-A and USB-C socket.

Space in the back seats

Back seat space is also excellent, with lots of headroom, legroom and space for your feet. The seats can move forwards and backwards as well as reclining, and while it’s a bit tight for three it would be fine for shorter journeys.

The third row is pretty good too. Because the second row can slide forward it can help with legroom, though there’s not much under-thigh support so long journeys could be tiring. These seats also recline, which helps with the tight headroom.

The ISOFIX points in the second row are really easy to access and there’s plenty of space for even the bulkiest of child seats. Storage is good if not great, with a small cubby between the seats ahead, door bins, and cup holders in the armrest.

Boot space

With the third row in place, boot space is underwhelming. At 117 litres, we could only fit one cabin bag and it wasn’t easy. The Kia Sorento is a bit better at 179 litres, but the Peugeot 5008 rules here with 348 litres, equivalent to a hatchback such as the Volkswagen Polo.

Fold the third row and things improve a lot. At 700 litres the boot is bigger than most families will ever need, but again, that’s down on alternatives. In five-seat mode the Kia Sorento has 813 litres while the Peugeot 5008 has a massive 916 litres to play with.

The other downside is that if you have the plug-in hybrid there’s nowhere to stash your charging cables in the car, because there’s very little in the way of under-floor storage.

Lovely materials, solid build quality and lots of technology, but routing so many functions through the touchscreen always causes problems

You’d never guess the Chery Tiggo 8’s price by simply sitting inside. The interior design is subdued but upmarket, with lots of high quality materials and design touches that look more than a little inspired by Mercedes.

The synthetic leather seat upholstery is soft, there’s real leather on the steering wheel and the stalks are nicely damped. It all creates quite the premium image.

The infotainment screen is a 15.6-inch unit that’s crystal clear and responds really quickly to your inputs. The menus are fairly well laid out so it’s not too tricky to navigate and you can create shortcuts for things like the driving assistance settings so you can change them quickly on the move.

You get Android Auto and Apple CarPlay fitted as standard, but this can be a source of frustration. Pretty much everything is controlled through the screen, so if you’re using one of these systems you have to keep jumping out and back in if you want to change anything in the car’s settings.

There are two engine options in the Chery Tiggo 8, and the petrol engine is the cheapest. It’s a 1.6-litre unit with 147hp, and although we haven’t tested it in the Tiggo 8, the same engine in the Omoda 5 and Jaecoo 5 is, well, a bit rubbish. It’s not very powerful, not very efficient, unrefined and just feels quite outdated.

The plug-in hybrid in our test car is the complete opposite. It’s smooth when running on electric power and the switch to petrol is barely noticeable most of the time. You get 56 miles of electric range, according to official tests, which is pretty good, and as a result we saw 52.3mpg during our time with the car. Miles off the totally unrealistic official figure of 202mpg, but good for a car of this size.

The plug-in hybrid is the best bet for company car drivers too, because the Benefit-in-Kind rate is lower, and because it’s better for CO2 emissions you’ll pay less road tax than the petrol if buying privately, too.

Perhaps disappointingly, the Chery Tiggo 8 only scored four out of five stars in Euro NCAP safety testing. Its adult occupant score of 81% is okay, but the 77% score for child occupant safety isn’t great.

The Tiggo 8 comes with a surround-view camera, adaptive cruise control, parking sensors and various driver assistance systems such as traffic jam assistance and automatic headlights.

Chery is new to the UK so it’s not possible to know how reliable its cars will be. However, what’s reassuring is that you get an excellent seven-year/100,000-mile warranty, with unlimited mileage in the first three years. You also get RAC Home Start breakdown cover.