Chery Tiggo 8
Published · Researched 2026-09-21
Seven seats, two screens, a plug-in hybrid option, and a price tag that starts where the competition's options list ends. The Chery Tiggo 8 is the family SUV for buyers who read spec sheets with a calculator in hand.
The UK car — the one that matters for English-speaking buyers — launched in autumn 2025 as a 1.6T petrol from £28,545 or a 1.5T plug-in hybrid from £33,545, the latter claiming 56 miles of electric range from an 18 kWh battery. Elsewhere you get the Tiggo 8 Pro Max: a 2.0T with 180 kW, a 7-speed dual-clutch, and all-wheel drive for NZ$44,990. Every version leans on the same argument: 7 seats and big-screen tech for £5,000–10,000 less than a Toyota Fortuner, Hyundai Santa Fe, Skoda Kodiaq or Peugeot 5008. Chery backs it with a 7-year/100,000-mile warranty that matches Kia's.
Reviewers who've actually driven it keep landing in the same place: impressive value, rough edges. The New Zealand verdict on the Pro Max — "a few rough edges, but an impressive and well equipped package" — could stand as the car's epitaph. The UK first-drive take: "slightly less talented to drive and with a vaguely infuriating interior… a capable enough seven-seat SUV." The interior quality genuinely surprises people at this price; the space is real; the kit list reads like a car costing half as much again.
The rough edges deserve specifics, because they're the kind that live with you. The 7-speed dual-clutch is jerky at low speed — "real low-speed jerkiness that will irritate buyers who spend time in heavy urban traffic," in one global review's words. That's not a defect; it's a calibration trait, and it will bother you every single school run. The ride is brittle on coarse surfaces, the steering is light and feedback-free, and the petrol is thirsty in the real world (around 36 mpg, CO₂ rated D). The third row is cramped with awkward access, and with all seven seats up the boot holds 117 litres — a number that tells you the third row is for children and emergencies. Then there's the alarm: a UK review car kept triggering its alarm five seconds after locking, apparently set off by the auto-closing sunroof blind, and "a scan of owner's forums suggests it's a common issue." A common, unfixed, owner-forum-documented electrical fault on a brand-new UK launch car is not a good look.
The crash-rating picture is genuinely confusing and worth flagging: one outlet says no Euro NCAP or ANCAP rating exists; another displays Euro NCAP scores for the Tiggo 8 (82% adult, 85% child). They can't both be right. If you're buying this for family duty, check the current Euro NCAP listing yourself before you sign — don't take either claim on faith, and don't take this review's word for it either.
Who should skip it? City drivers who'll feel that DCT every day. Anyone who needs the third row weekly — buy a proper large MPV or a bigger SUV instead. And badge-conscious buyers who'll wince at the resale: the Tiggo 8 trails Toyota by an estimated 10–15 points at five years, which narrows the headline price advantage over a full ownership cycle.
The social pulse is thin but telling: the car is too new in the West for deep owner communities, and the loudest voices are reviewers working through their surprise at the value. The hype to discount is the 235 mpg official figure on the PHEV — lab-test fiction that one UK outlet correctly called impossible — and the 7-year warranty as a quality proxy. It's a confidence signal and a market-entry tool in equal measure.
Value call: the PHEV is the rational buy if you'll charge it nightly — otherwise you're hauling a battery for nothing and the thirsty petrol makes more sense. Sweet spot: 2025–2026 UK/EU cars under full warranty. Avoid early Chinese-market 2018–2020 cars (different era, different car) and any used example without a full Chery service history — that warranty is only as good as its paperwork.
A lot of car for the money, with the emphasis on both halves of that sentence.