2022 Haval H6 Ultra AWD review

The 2022 Haval H6 is fast maturing into a real contender in the value-packed family SUV segment. We take the entry-level H6 Premium and the high-spec H6 Ultra AWD for a spin.

What we love

It’s a good-looking machine – the rear LED light bar is particularly cool

Plenty of equipment in all range variants

Lots of space in the cabin and the boot

What we don’t

Low-speed performance of the transmission needs work

The suspension could really use a local-market tune

Soft brake pedal feel

Introduction

Good looks, good space and a long list of good-ies gives the 2022 Haval H6 a good chance of resonating with Australian buyers.

Haval (pronounced like gravel) will celebrate seven years in Australia this October and sales are growing. In January, the H6 (366 units) outsold more established medium SUV nameplates from Ford (Escape 208 units) and Renault (Koleos 314 units) and is knocking on the door of arch value-rival the MG HS (399 units).

Sure, things are still a reasonable way from the first ‘mainstream’ brand (Honda CR-V 584 units), let alone the volume-leading Mazda CX-5 (3213 units), but the H6 is on the up.

With a range that starts from $32,990 drive away, the H6 has a lot to offer in its entry-level Premium model, but we’ve also stepped up the ladder to the $41,990 (drive away) H6 Ultra AWD.

So does the extra $9000 make sense? We’ve recently driven both to find out.

Style and Design

To make it clear while you look at photos, the white car is the entry-level H6 Premium whereas the metallic blue car is the H6 Ultra AWD.

As regardless of grade, the H6 looks good, in a ‘best of breed’ generic SUV kind of way.

It’s handsome, but not striking. Modern but not edgy. As perhaps an indication of how it looks like a mental meld of many other SUVs, I had a number of people try to open the door while I was sitting in the car (the role of a teenager’s father) as they had mistaken the H6 for something else.

A Mazda. A Lexus. Another newer, Mazda.

Not bad company to keep, particularly as I was in the white Premium and not the Blue/Green Ultra at the time.

And yes, this car is ‘Energy Green’, one of six choices (black, blue, green, grey, red, white) whereas the non-metallic white is the only one to avoid a $495 premium.

And no, it’s not a fault of the photo editing. Energy Green is pretty jolly blue in real life.

That aside, it’s important to note the H6 looks equally sharp at both ends of its range spectrum.

The Premium runs on 18-inch wheels where the Ultra scores 19s and both look smart, and really the only way you can tell them apart is the panoramic sunroof that is standard on the high-spec car.

Inside

Stylish on the outside, and stylish inside too. The funky interior is again modern and slick with nice use of materials that feel well constructed.

It’s like Haval took a look at European and premium brand cars and said, “what do people like that we can adapt”. The faux-stitched dashboard looks good, sort of like a BMW. The alloy-look speaker grilles look good, and very much like Mercedes-Benz Burmester ones.

Even the floating console with its rotary dial looks more upmarket than it really should.

Plus there is excellent storage with a wireless charger included in the Ultra.

The cloth seats of the Premium are fine, as is the ‘Comfort-Tek’ interior in the Ultra. Support and adjustment are good and it performs well for longer drives.

Rear passengers have a heap of space, as well as air vents and charge ports. The boot offers 600L and can expand to 1485L with the 60:40 seats folded.

Infotainment and Connectivity

The Ultra up-sizes the central media display from 10.25 to 12.3-inches and adds a head-up display and 8-speaker sound system.

Combined with the 10.25-inch instrument cluster, the whole cockpit of the H6 feels very slick and upmarket.

The larger media system has a slightly revised interface which is a little cleaner and easier to use. All the elements are presented on the primary home screen and while the ‘slide down’ top submenu is still available, the clumsy and almost hidden option set on the left side has gone.

This one isn’t perfect, and it can be hard to find out where you are within the menu system, and even harder to adjust the volume (there’s no control other than the screen or the steering wheel), but these aren’t show stoppers.

For example, some settings are in a menu where you don’t really expect them (heated seats are in CLIMATE rather than SEAT) and there are some strange functions like a memory cleanup purge.

That said, Apple CarPlay presents in full screen, which looks great.

The system has two themes called ‘Space Fold’ and ‘The Foreign Space’. Yeah. Must have been an interesting day in the Haval offices when those were proposed.

The Foreign Space shows a rotating random exo-planet on the instrument cluster, which is great if you’re a massive sci-fi fan and want your H6 to feel like a shuttle from the Enterprise, but otherwise is straight up wacky.

USB placement in the cabin has a port on the passenger side but also a channel to feed the cable up to the base of the phone cubby and wireless charger. While you don’t need it for power this is really handy for a neat CarPlay connection.

It’s worth noting that every time I got in the car the audio was muted, and I’m not sure if that’s a choice.

Safety & Technology

One of the most impressive features of the H6 Ultra is the representation of other traffic shown as part of the adaptive cruise control and lane-keeping assistant system. The ‘Out Run’ style graphics show in the instrument cluster as well as the head-up display.

It’s what we’ve seen in Tesla, BMW and Mercedes-Benz models, so it’s great to see at such an affordable price point.

All models receive AEB, Lane Departure Warning, Blind Spot Detection and Lane Change assist, where the Ultra adds adaptive cruise control, rear cross-traffic assist and a 360-degree camera.

While on the subject of driving information, the H6 shows you an instantaneous fuel consumption chart that has taken ‘instantaneous’ literally. It changes with every pulse of the engine and flicker of the fuel pump. You can watch it dip and surge as the car changes gears, and rather than providing detailed information it’s just distracting as it makes no real sense.

The assistance technology worked well for us in both urban and touring environments, but the car is yet to receive an ANCAP rating.

There are seven airbags including a front centre bag and side curtain airbags.

Value for Money

Value is obviously a key part of the Haval H6’s proposition.

The amount of equipment and features at the car’s price point put the H6 in good stead among its competitors. It is supported by a seven-year unlimited kilometre warranty too.

Servicing costs $800 for three years and $1490 for five, with intervals at 15,000km (past the first 10,000km 12-month service).

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Driving

The 150kW / 320Nm 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine is shared across all H6 models, with the obvious exception of the upcoming hybrid variant.

However, only the Ultra and black-pack Vanta have the option of all-wheel drive.

This adds 70kg and $3000 to your H6, but arguably, little else.

If there’s a weak point to the driveline though, it’s the seven-speed dual-clutch transmission, particularly off the line, and especially in concert with the start-stop system.

The elastic take-up of the transmission to get the car moving is just out of tune with your natural approach to driving. If on a slight incline, the car will roll back slightly then, with 320Nm available from just 1500rpm, will spin the wheels in an urgent attempt to make up lost time.

The four-wheel-drive system in the Ultra does limit this somewhat, but while it stops any embarrassing ‘chirps’ away from the lights, it doesn’t help that take up latency.

When re-firing from an ‘off’ state, this can take countable seconds to be moving again, which isn’t great if you need to make a quick dash across traffic at an intersection.

Selection through the rotary dial takes a bit of getting used to as well, but it generally works well enough.

On the move, however, things are far better and the car performs diligently and smoothly. The 150kW 2.0-litre turbo is willing enough, and the long torque band between 1500 and 4000rpm keeps things responsive for highway touring.

We averaged 8.8L/100km over a week with the car, up marginally on the combined cycle claim of 8.3L/100km, but not dramatically so.

A very strange function is the activation of Sport mode, which is done through the media system rather than a button. It’s not ideal as this is a ‘mechanical’ function of the car, and something you need to do while on the move, but what’s even stranger is when you activate it, the car flashes the hazard lights on the dashboard as if to say “look out world, here I come!”

Braking too is adequate but not particularly sharp. There’s no point where you feel you won’t stop, just that the pedal isn’t as responsive as it could be, particularly around town.

The ride is comfortable, if not perhaps too comfortable.

The suspension tune is very much geared toward a softer ride which is great while touring but tends to compress quickly on speed humps and not settle immediately when rebounding.

This makes the H6 feel a bit fussy over choppy surfaces, particularly around town.

It’s good on the open road though and manages touring on country tarmac with plenty of comfort. You can push it through windier sections with confidence, not as a sports car mind you, but as a family wagon, it manages well enough.

Conclusion

Sharp looks, functional space and plenty of equipment make the 2022 Haval H6 very appealing from the get-go.

A long warranty and strong purchase value keep the good vibes going, plus if touring is your game, it can eat up the miles as good as most.

Things aren’t as refined around town, where the dull brake feel and elastic transmission take up show that Haval still has a little way to go. The same goes for the suspension setup and urban body control, which isn’t quite up to the same level of compliance as some more established brands.

But all this can all be fixed. A bit of suspension damping adjustment here, some software tuning there. There’s nothing fundamentally wrong, just things to improve.

We don’t feel the $3000 asked for the all-paw variant is worth the extra spend, despite the way it mitigates some of the off-the-line fussiness, but the extra equipment and technology in the Ultra, especially at $38,990 drive away, makes it worth taking a closer look.

Keyword: 2022 Haval H6 Ultra AWD review