Can the Chery Tiggo 9 beat a Land Rover off road? Mat Watson finds out

This is the new Chery Tiggo 9, a Chinese hybrid family car which offers luxury car features without the luxury car price. The interior is posh enough to rival a Land Rover Discovery, but that car is known for being unstoppable when the going gets rough.

I want to find out if the Chery can match, or even beat the Land Rover in a series of off-road challenges. Let’s start by taking a look at the stats.

Chery Tiggo 9 vs Land Rover Discovery facts and stats

Starting with the Land Rover, it has a 3.0-litre V6 turbocharged diesel engine with 306hp and 700Nm of torque. Its all-wheel drive system has a centre-locking differential and a clever terrain response system, which uses electronics to maximise traction. This also isn’t a new Discovery. It’s a 2020 model with almost 120,000 miles on the clock and is worth around £25,000. A new one would cost you around £65,000.

The Chery Tiggo 9 has no such systems, but it does have 430hp and 580Nm of torque courtesy of its 1.5-litre petrol hybrid engine. It drives like an electric car most of the time, with two electric motors on the front axle and one on the rear, which should be handy off-road as it makes it easier to modulate the power. All-in, this Chery costs £43,000.

To make things fair, both cars have been fitted with Davanti all-terrain tyres. So it’ll all come down to how their four-wheel drive systems cope with the terrain. The winner of each test gets two points, the loser gets one and if a car fails to complete a challenge it’ll score nothing.

Chery Tiggo 9 vs Land Rover Discovery: uphill drag race

We’re going to start with a test of both traction and performance with a drag race up a very muddy hill. My Chery should do well here with its extra power.

The first run was very close, with both cars getting off the line neck-and-neck. They both crossed the finish line at exactly the same time, so we had to run the race again.

This time, I flew away from the start way ahead of the Land Rover. It was a clear win for the Tiggo 9, and the Discovery also split its aftermarket chin spoiler for its troubles. Hopefully that’s the full extent of damage from today’s tests.

Score: Chery 2 – 1 Land Rover

Chery Tiggo 9 vs Land Rover Discovery: handling and manoeuvrability

The next challenge is a test of handling. We’ll be taking the cars through a course of tight turns, deep ruts and standing water to see which is the most manoeuvrable. The fastest car wins, and we won’t just be hooning them with reckless abandon – we want to avoid damaging the cars.

The Land Rover went first, and flew around the course with no issues. There were no split trims in this round, and it posted a time of 24.99 seconds.

My performance in the Tiggo 9 was equally undramatic, and the extra power meant I went around slightly quicker, despite having to be a bit more careful over the deeper ruts. I finished in 24.51 seconds.

Score: Chery 4 – 2 Land Rover

Chery Tiggo 9 vs Land Rover Discovery: the stepped slope test

This is where the Chery might start to struggle, because this is a test of the suspension, chassis articulation and grip rather than outright speed. We’ll be driving up a steep, stepped slope, and the winner is the one which can get up the most smoothly – as judged by off-road expert Graham.

And the Discovery simply walked up the hill. With the centre locking differential engaged it ascended the hill with no drama at all, but it was a different story in the Tiggo 9.

Things started well for me, but about halfway up it seemed to lose its mind. It was spinning its wheels like crazy, and while it did eventually get to the top it was much messier than the Discovery.

I tried one more time in normal mode rather than off-road mode, and surprisingly it was better. The Discovery still wins overall though.

Score: Chery 5 – 4 Land Rover

Chery Tiggo 9 vs Land Rover Discovery: side slope test

The side slope test is designed to see how stable the cars are at extreme angles. We’ll start by driving down the hill, before tackling the uphill section.

And this was another clear win for the Land Rover. Both cars went down okay, although the Chery did struggle to keep all four wheels on the ground, but it was on the uphill section where the Tiggo 9 just didn’t have the grip I needed. It spun up its wheels, while the Discovery calmly crept up.

Score: Chery 6 – 6 Land Rover

Chery Tiggo 9 vs Land Rover Discovery: drag race

This is where I feel more at home: a good old-fashioned drag race. Granted, this one is on a sandy surface, but it’s still a simple, flat sprint to the finish line. I was feeling confident.

I was running the Chery in Sport mode, while the Discovery was in its sand setting. The first run was close, but it was a win for me in the Tiggo 9.

We had another go with the Discovery in sport mode, and this time it was even more clear-cut. The Chery crossed the finish line a full car length ahead of the Land Rover, putting me in the lead as we went into the final challenge.

Score: Chery 8 – 7 Land Rover

Chery Tiggo 9 vs Land Rover Discovery: the rock crawl

We’ve saved the toughest challenge for last. The rock crawl is a very steep climb up a really rocky track. It’s very hard to get enough momentum to reach the top, while also not going overboard and damaging the car. The Discovery went first.

Things started off smoothly, but the driver didn’t quite carry enough speed to get up the steepest section near the top. It did eventually reach the summit, but there was a lot of wheelspin involved.

I’ve done this climb hundreds of times over the years, which gave me a bit of an advantage. The Chery actually got up the hill more smoothly than the Discovery, but I think that’s more down to driver experience than the car.

So we called this challenge a draw, but what does that mean for the final score?

Chery Tiggo 9 vs Land Rover Discovery: the results

Final score: Chery 9 – 8 Land Rover

The Chery Tiggo 9 has won this test overall. The Land Rover Discovery is a better off-roader when things get really tough, which is why it won the more technical challenges, but I’m still hugely impressed by the Chery’s performance.

It completed all the same tests that the Land Rover did, and the added performance gave it an edge overall. So if you’re after a posh family SUV which can handle itself off-road, I can recommend the Chery Tiggo 9. Just don’t get too carried away down a green lane.

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