Omoda 5 review

Made in China labels can be seen on clothes, electronics and furniture, but what about cars and SUVs? Well, we’re going to see a lot more Chinese models on UK roads – including the Omoda 5 we're reviewing here.

Indeed, the Omoda 5 is a new family SUV that will take on some of the best-selling cars in the UK, including the Kia Sportage, MG HS and Nissan Qashqai. It’s currently offered with a 1.6-litre petrol engine, but there’s also an electric Omoda E5 if you’re in the market for an electric SUV. 

Before we dive into this review and tell you everything you need to know about the Omoda 5, let's give you a quick overview of the brand behind it. Omoda is a subsidiary of Chery, which is one of the biggest Chinese automotive brands and sold almost 1.9 million cars worldwide in 2023.

In the UK, the Omoda 5 will be followed by the Omoda 9 large SUV, while another Chery subsidiary – Jaecoo – will launch the J7 luxury car. To help achieve a sales target of 40,000 units by the end of 2026, Omoda and Jaecoo will have 100 dealers up and running in the UK by the end of 2024, with 20 more opening soon afterwards. 

Those are some pretty ambitious plans, then, but does the Omoda 5 have what it takes to challenge the best family SUVs and would we recommend buying one? Read on to find out…

The Omoda 5 is powered by a 184bhp 1.6-litre turbocharged petrol engine that drives the front wheels. It’s paired with a seven-speed automatic gearbox (there’s no manual gearbox option) and it’s currently the only engine option.

The 1.6-litre engine offers some healthy performance figures, with 0-62mph officially taking 7.8 seconds. That’s much quicker than the entry-level 1.3-litre mild-hybrid Nissan Qashqai (10.2 seconds) and 1.5-litre MG HS (9.6 seconds).

However, the Omoda 5 doesn’t feel as quick as those figures suggest, because the engine needs working hard to get any performance out of it – and it becomes quite coarse as you do that. The automatic gearbox also takes a moment or two to wake up when you accelerate from a standstill, but it does change gears quickly and smoothly once you're up and running.

At motorway speeds, the engine settles down and becomes quieter, but there is noticeable tyre and wind noise. The Nissan Qashqai is much quieter by comparison.

The suspension, meanwhile, does a reasonable job of soaking up small lumps and bumps, but is unsettled by harsher imperfections and expansion joints.

Things don’t improve much at low speeds, because the firm set-up means the car tends to fidget over bumps on the road. Overall, a Kia Sportage is more comfortable, whether you're in town or on the motorway.

As with many family SUVs, the Omoda 5’s steering is very light, which makes it easy to manoeuvre around town. Unlike the Ford Kuga and some other rivals, it doesn’t build up much weight at speed. Of course, this isn’t a sports SUV, but a more natural steering feel would make it much easier to place on the road when cornering.

Despite being quite tall and boxy, the Omoda 5 handles reasonably well and stays planted when the going gets twisty. In fact, it’s much better than a Citroën C5 Aircross in this area, but it does struggle for grip on sharper turns.

“Omoda is serious about its ambitions for the UK market, and that’s evident by it re-engineering its cars for European roads and tastes. However, I think it’s a shame the 5 is only available with one petrol engine, because rivals offer more choice.” – Lawrence Cheung, New Cars Editor

If you like a high driving position, you’ll feel right at home in the Omoda 5. The seat perches you high up, which means you get a good view forwards. The sporty, bucket-style front seats offer plenty of adjustment, so it’s very easy to get comfortable.

Once you take a look backwards, visibility isn’t so good. The roofline slopes downwards towards the rear, which means there are wide rear pillars that create a blind-spot. The rear window is tiny, although you do get a reversing camera as standard to help with parking.

The Omoda 5’s interior offers plenty of visual appeal, and as you climb in, you’re immediately greeted by two 10.25in screens that are combined to look like one giant screen. While they arguably give the interior a smart, premium look, the actual functionality is very basic.

The infotainment system is particularly simple, with the main icons on the home screen including your media, phone and vehicle settings. It does at least come with wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay as standard, and the touchscreen response is quick, although the graphics are not very sharp.

It’s a similar story with the digital driver’s display, which offers an equally simple layout for your speed and trip information. Unfortunately though, the speed is positioned to the left hand side of the display rather than the centre, and it’s not as configurable as the system in the MG HS. On the plus side, the system is controlled using physical buttons and switches on the steering wheel.

Below the central infotainment screen, you’ll find the climate controls integrated into a piano-black panel that spans the width of the dashboard. They're touch-sensitive and responsive, although physical buttons and dials would be more intuitive to use while driving, and easier to use without taking your eyes off the road.

Material quality is impressive, especially when you consider that the Omoda 5 is one of the more affordable models in the family SUV class. There’s soft faux-leather for the areas you touch regularly, such as the steering wheel and gear lever, and a firm but high-quality feeling plastic on the dashboard and doors.

“I like the Omoda 5’s high driving position and the bucket-style front seats, which offer plenty of lower back support. It’s great that entry-level cars get electric adjustment for the driver’s seat too.” – Oliver Young, Used Car Reporter

There’s no shortage of head and leg room for the driver and front passenger in the front of the Omoda 5, no matter how you adjust the seat. You'll find plenty of storage areas dotted around the place, with a large central storage cubby and two cup holders on the centre console.

In the back seats, there’s a reasonable amount of leg room, but passengers more than 6ft tall will struggle if they're sitting behind similarly tall front-seat occupants. A middle seat passenger gets a decent amount of knee room, and while there's a hump in the floor, it's quite small and doesn't intrude too much on foot space.

Head room, on the other hand, is poor in the back. The Omoda 5's sloping roofline means most passengers will find their heads brushing up against the ceiling, plus the high windowline, small rear windows and front bucket-style seats create a cramped feeling.

Unfortunately, matters don’t get much better in terms of the boot. With just 307 litres of space, the boot is tiny compared with the Kia Sportage (591 litres), MG HS (463 litres) and Nissan Qashqai (504 litres). This is partly because the underfloor storage area is taken up by a spare wheel.

On the positive side, the boot opening is large and square; it should offer more than enough room for a big weekly supermarket shop.

The rear seatbacks fold down in a 60/40 configuration, which is the same as in the HS and Qashqai. The Sportage beats them for flexibility, because its seats split 40/20/40.

“I’m 6ft 2in and I found the Omoda 5’s back seats to be quite tight. My head brushes up against the ceiling and there’s minimal leg room, particularly when sitting behind a similarly tall driver.” – George Hill, Staff Writer

The Omoda 5 is more expensive than Citroën C5 Aircross and MG HS, but cheaper than a Hyundai Tucson, Nissan Qashqai and Kia Sportage, making it one of the more affordable cars in the family SUV class.

While the Omoda 5 is slightly cheaper to buy outright than some of those rivals, it won’t be as affordable to run. The 1.6-litre petrol version officially averages 34.5mpg, which is less than the entry-level engine in the C5 Aircross, Qashqai and Sportage.

CO2 emissions for the 1.6-litre version are rated at 169g/km, which means you might want to look at the fully electric Omoda E5 or a plug-in hybrid if you’re a company car driver for their lower benefit-in-kind (BIK) tax ratings.

Standard kit is very generous, with the entry-level Comfort trim offering adaptive cruise control, part-leather upholstery, wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay and heated and electrically adjustable driver's seat as standard.

Noble trim adds a heated leather steering wheel, an electrically adjustable front passenger seats, a panoramic glass sunroof, a 360-degree parking camera, a powered tailgate and red styling details for the exterior, but we don't think it's worth the extra cost.

While the Omoda 5 is too new to have featured in the What Car? Reliability Survey it has been safety tested by the experts at Euro NCAP where it achieved a full five-star rating in 2022. All versions come with plenty of safety kit as standard, including automatic emergency braking (AEB), blind-spot monitoring, a driver monitoring system, lane-departure warning and road-sign recognition.

For extra peace of mind, all Omoda 5s are offered with a seven-year, 100,000-mile warranty. That’s more than MG, Nissan and Volkswagen offer, and the same as Kia's cover. 

“The Omoda 5 comes with a long list of standard safety equipment, which is great, but I did find the road-sign recognition system to be inaccurate at times.” – Claire Evans, Consumer Editor

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