GAC Motor

Boldly styled Rav4 rival, with a surprising amount of highway cruising refinement and safety/tech features for the price.

A panoramic sunroof significantly enhances the cabin ambience, especially on cloudy days. But it’s a bit superfluous for the long, high-radiation South African summers.

Luggage space is below the class average at only 420 litres.

Only one engine option. The 1.5-litre turbopetrol makes decent power (130kW), but Emkoo isn’t light (1540kg), nor is its fuel consumption. Emkoo is impressively quiet at highway cruising speeds, though.

Executive is better than the Executive Plus. Why? It has a larger-volume tyre for better ride quality and does without much of the OTT driver tech standard on the Executive Plus. All Ekmoos lack a full-size spare wheel, though.

GAC offers a very confident 5-year/100 000km service plan, but Emkoo’s lifetime engine warranty is limited to first owners.

Like geometric design and cubist art? You’ll love this crossover from GAC.

Like most Chinese crossovers of a similar size, it's powered by a 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine and drives the front wheels through a 7-speed dual-clutch transmission.

Steep roads and sudden throttle inputs can confuse the transmission into abrupt shift patterns. And none of the Emzooms are light on fuel.

Ride quality is reasonably comfy, and at highway speeds, noise and vibration refinement rivals European crossovers.

Standard features are amazing for the price. Cabin also has a full suite of physical HVAC controls, which are rare on Chinese vehicles, and work much more intuitively than selecting settings through the touchscreen. Weirdly, the infotainment doesn’t support Android Auto.

Luggage capacity is decent for a crossover of its size, with 341 litres of luggage space, swelling to 1 271 litres with the rear seats folded.

As with most Chinese vehicles, the best buy Emzoom is an entry-level Comfort version. It has all the standard comfort and convenience kit you need, without any of the elaborate, invasive Chinese UX and driver-tech features found on more expensive trims.