This Tiggo 8 Pro SUV is already selling well in Middle East and Philippines.
The Chery Malaysia office has been teasing the re-introduction of the brand in Malaysia for some months now and with public relations team already in place and a Facebook page already up and running, it seems that Chery wants a slice of the lucrative SUV segment in ASEAN and also Malaysia.
Namely the segment that is currently being lead by Proton with their two rebadged Geely models, the Proton X70 and Proton X50.
The last time Chery Auto was in Malaysia was more than a decade ago and it was not a successful business venture as the Chery Easter MPV, which was their best selling product had highly questionable build quality while the Chery QQ compact car which retailed for RM39,888 saw a short lifespan with its quality issues. Lets not forget the Chery A160 sedan which arrived and sold just a handful as Malaysians preferred the Proton Waja.
By 2005, ALADO Corporation Sdn Bhd which was the brand guardian for Chery in Malaysia had grand plans of 6 new models including the compact SUV, the Chery Tiggo that looked very much like a second generation Toyota RAV4. It got a few buyers and till today you might spot one on the road.
This early model Tiggo arrived in two engine variants which were borrowed from Mitsubishi. A 2.0L and a 2.4L which proved to be a good move as owners could still get running and servicing parts in Malaysia.
The 2.0L delivered 124bhp and 176Nm of torque and the 2.4L had only 127bhp and 201Nm of torque. The 2.0L Tiggo was priced at RM80,292 and competed with the Honda CR-V which was priced at RM147,000 and lets not forget the Kia Sportage which had a sticker price of RM112,000.
With a huge price difference and a Mitsubishi engine, the Chery Tiggo had sales success written all over its product, however questionable build quality and slow after sales deterred success and soon after the business shut down with all remaining stock being sold for half the price.
Today Chery is a mature car manufacturer that has moved leaps and bounds in quality and engineering and with sales success in left hand drive countries, we are sure its arrival in ASEAN and Malaysia will also see sales success.
However, do not expect the selling price of the latest Tiggo 8 Pro to be 50 percent less than the rivals as before. Instead it will be priced very close to the selling price of the Proton X70 and this will make for interesting times for the Malaysian SUV buyer.
