Team-BHP
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https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)
The
Chevrolet Enjoy has been launched in India at a price of between Rs. 5.49 - 7.99 lakhs (ex-Delhi).
What you'll like:
• A well priced 7-seater MPV. Priced on par with C segment sedans
• Compliant low speed ride, matched to neutral on-road behaviour
• 1.3L diesel offers excellent urban driveability and fuel economy
• Compact size & light controls make it easy to drive in the city
• Equipment list includes leather seats, dual-airbags, ABS, EBD, dual air-con, parking sensors etc.
What you won't:
• Not as well-rounded as the Ertiga. Several loose ends that need tying up
• Uninspired interior design. Ordinary part quality too
• Poor NVH insulation. Refinement levels miss the mark
• Underwhelming 1.4L petrol. Weak low end torque
• Missing essentials (MID, dead pedal, steering-mounted controls, tumble-down 2nd row seats etc.)
This Review has been compiled jointly with Parrys 
If you've been reading our monthly sales reports (
link), you already know of our market's fascination with people carriers. In fact, UVs form the one segment that continues to record impressive growth numbers in a damp economic environment. Now, Chevrolet wants a piece of that lucrative pie.
After the Sail hatchback & sedan, the Enjoy is the 3rd Chinese product to be launched in less than a year. This MPV has been developed by the GM-SAIC joint venture (China) and was first unveiled in India at the Auto Expo 2012 (
link). The Enjoy has its origins in the Wuling Hongguang, also known as the CN100. It will be available in 7 & 8 seater configurations, with only the lowest variant getting the 8 seater layout. Just like the Ertiga, there will be a choice of 2 engines; a 1.3L diesel and a 1.4L petrol.
The Enjoy isn't positioned as a "typical" 7 seater people-mover like the Innova and Xylo are. As
Vid6639 points out, those who need the larger 7-seater MUVs won't deviate; the smaller MPVs aren't a substitute to a spacious full-size UV that can easily accommodate 7 adults. Instead, the target customer is the middle aged 35 - 45 year old buyer who usually opts for a B+ hatch or C segment sedan. Such a customer isn't going to use the 3rd row of seats every day. At best, it's once a week...the kind of car owner who needs a 7 seater mostly for weekends and outstation trips. It's quite clear that the Enjoy is positioned as a
sedan alternative and priced as such too. As if to confirm the same, GM has no plans to discontinue their current MUV offering, the Tavera. The two vehicles will happily co-exist at different price points.
The Enjoy has a monocoque construction (unlike the body-on-frame Tavera, Xylo, Grande etc.). However, beating the trend of monocoque UVs, the Chevrolet sends power to its rear wheels.
A 3 year / 100,000 km warranty on the Enjoy is standard. As an add-on option, Chevrolet also offers their
Chevy Promise for 3 years / 45,000 km. This covers the cost of everything for this time period, clutch pressure plates, brake pads, regular servicing, consumables and labour. Even wiper blades and bulbs are covered. The only items that are
not included are the tyres, battery and any accident repair or detailing work.
The design is inoffensive. It's rather straightforward, with the front three-quarter view being the best:
Flat rear looks Xylo-esque. It gives the impression of a breadbox! Ubiquitous chrome strip? Check:
Parked between an Innova and a Tavera, the Enjoy looks smaller, sleeker and well....different. We attracted a lot of attention while shooting this pic. Some folk referred to it as the "
new Innova"
Typical MPV styling:
Sedan-like wraparound headlamps:
Panel gaps are acceptable in some areas...
...but inordinately wide in others. This picture is of the rear hatch:
Grab-type door handles with no garish chrome add-ons. The keyhole could have been integrated better:
Roof mounted antenna:
Thin 175 section
Gitivan tyres sourced from China. 6-spoke 14" rims look a size too small. 15" would have been preferred:
Old fashioned tail-lamps. No fog lamps at the rear:
3rd row occupants get butterfly windows:
The top-end LTZ variant is equipped with dual front airbags, ABS / EBD, captain seats and leather upholstery:
A closer look at the rear spoiler:
2 reverse sensors - important in a vehicle of this size, and one with undersized ORVMs:
Underside-mounted spare is a full size steel wheel. Diesel / Petrol ground clearance is 161 / 165 mm respectively. That's significantly lesser than the Ertiga's 185 mm rating:
As people carriers go, this image provides a neat comparison:
The petrol Enjoy we drove wore a maroon body shade:
ORVMs are too small for an MPV:
Look familiar? One of the GJ-registered test mules (
spotted several times on Team-BHP) was in the vicinity:
The Chevy's interior is done up in a black and beige palette. Faux wood inserts dot everything from the doors and A/C vents to the gear lever. The faux wood itself is in a deep brown shade. Quite nice-looking, even if I'm no fan of faux wood myself!
Interior quality isn't in line with the expectations we have of modern-day MPVs. Plastic quality is very mediocre, there are glaring misses in the way that some parts are fitted and overall fit & finish is rudimentary. Chief competitor - the Ertiga - greatly scores over the Enjoy in the
feel good department.
Car-like dash area. Leather seats are standard on the LTZ variant; leather feels good to the touch. Large glass area leads to a bright cabin ambience:
Basic steering wheel. No audio controls or leather trim of any kind. The horn pad is wide & easy to access:
Simple dials are easy to read. No MID, you only get an odometer and one trip-meter:
Stalk orientation is set up with the indicator on the right. A bit surprising, considering the Chinese origin and the fact that the fuel cap is located on the right side. Stalk plastics are rock hard:
The triple A/C vents visually balance out the three A/C knobs (
lower down on the console) nicely:
The Nippon head-unit is rather economy grade. MP3 / WMA player with AUX and USB slots. We tried connecting an iPod & smartphone through the USB port, albeit it failed to recognise them. Decent audio quality out of the box. Tweeters are mounted on the dashboard, while each door gets a speaker:
Dash-mounted tweeters:
Hollowed-out portion (
in front of the digital clock) is ideal for the deities that adorn Indian dashboards:
Manual A/C does the job, but struggles with prolonged use in hot summers. Our diesel demo vehicle's A/C was acting a bit peculiar, with the A/C light toggling on and off at regular intervals. Hopefully, this is a pre-production glitch:
Gearlever with faux wood trim:
We really
enjoyed the seats. They hold you well and offer sufficient lower back support, an absolute essential for long drives:
Driver's seat height adjust is nifty. I could manage to get comfortable in no time:
Hard & plasticky handbrake lever. Scorpio-style armrests are sorely missed:
Clutter-free foot well area. No dead pedal. In fact, there's no space at all to rest your left foot. I actually had to slip my foot under the clutch pedal when cruising!
Glove compartment lid feels solid. Average-sized glovebox. Good depth though:
Rudimentary door pads wear hard plastic for the most part. Some relief provided by the faux wood inserts. No auto up / down for driver's window:
Slim door pockets appear to be an afterthought. Other than the booklet depicted in the pic, you won't be able to keep much else here:
Inner mirror provides a wide field of vision...
...although the small ORVMs leave a lot to be desired:
Rearward view for the driver is adequate by UV standards:
Passenger airbag is housed in a separate cutout. No need to change the entire dashboard if & when it deploys:
You can effortlessly step inside to the 2nd seat row. Ingress is easy. Monocoque construction leads to a lower floor that enhances comfort levels:
The top-variant gets captain seats with individual armrests. They are identical to the front row seats, making the omission of a driver armrest particularly confounding :confused:. The armrests however are small:
2nd row legroom is adequate. Sliding seats mean you can extend knee-room, based on whether the 3rd row is occupied. Also, the seats are set higher than the front chairs. This pic illustrates legroom with the front seat set up for a 5'10" occupant:
Middle row hump is very prominent. Didn't make a difference in our captain seat edition, but surely will in the lowest variant that gets a regular bench seat:
2nd row A/C vents (included on all variants) are equipped with an air volume control switch. It's powerful enough for 3rd row occupants too:
Rear door pockets are as useless as those at the front. The seat-back pockets are the only real storage option for passengers:
A design failure, really. This is the max that the 2nd row seats flip forward, to allow for 3rd row ingress / egress. Don't expect the elderly to ever make it to the back:
Rear bench can seat two. Best suited to those with a small build:
Parrys looks acceptably comfortable at the back. It helps to be seated in the direction of the car's movement (unlike the side-facing seats of some MUVs). Under-thigh support is lacking on the last row. 2nd row seats have fore & aft adjustment, a good thing for when the 3rd row is going to be used:
Limited boot space with the 3rd row seat in place. Fabric seat-back is improperly fitted:
Single lever to fold down the last seat row (for luggage):
Luggage space with the last row folded down:
The 3rd row bench can also be flipped forward entirely:
The Smartech 1.3L Diesel:
The engine is installed longitudinally, sending power to the rear wheels. Visibly, the engine bay is a turnoff due to exposed wires & pipes. The same engine under the Chevy Sail's hood looks far better packaged:
The Enjoy is powered by the familiar 1,248 cc 4-cylinder diesel (
aka national engine) with a Fixed Geometry Turbo (FGT). Power ratings stand at 76 BHP (@ 4,000 rpm) and 188 Nm torque (@ 1,750 rpm). The Ertiga is lighter & makes more power / torque as well (89 BHP / 200 Nm), thanks in no small part to its Variable Geometry Turbo.
You might find it strange that Chevrolet's 7 seater MPV makes lesser torque than the smaller Sail U-VA hatchback (205 Nm) with the same engine. A little known fact is that the Wuling Hongguang (
aka Chevrolet Enjoy) only had a petrol engine in China. Plonking the diesel motor in was an exercise largely for the Indian market. Chevrolet knew that a petrol MPV had a fat chance of ever seeing beyond single digit sales in India. Thus, the 1.3L diesel was shoehorned inside and placed longitudinally. Some drivetrain components are shared with the petrol, which might explain the required lower torque output. Apart from the Premier Rio, the Enjoy is the only RWD application of the 1.3L Fiat-GM motor.
Chevrolet's state of tune for the 1.3L diesel is superior to what Maruti, Tata and even Fiat have managed. Turbo-lag is far better controlled. As a result, power delivery is relatively linear and you hardly experience any lag. Urban practicality is of a tall order and you won't be using the gearshift as much as in the Ertiga. The gearing is also on the shorter side, all the better for driveability. The Enjoy diesel is reasonably peppy within the city and you won't complain about performance. Due to the minimal turbo-lag, we were able to drive around in the Western ghats in 2nd gear itself (with the air-con on). This motor is all about low to mid-range torque delivery. On the open road however, things aren't as impressive. In terms of outright acceleration, the Ertiga (with its superior power-to-weight ratio) is substantially faster in the 0 - 100 dash. The Enjoy offers acceptable performance up till 80 - 90 kph, but the MPV is timid thereafter. You have no choice other than adopting a sedate driving style on the highway. Overtaking manouveurs need to be carefully planned; this is an area where the Ertiga is decidedly superior.
The Enjoy is acceptably refined when ambling about in the city, or when lazily cruising on the motorway. As the rpm needle climbs however, holes in the NVH package become glaringly obvious. For one, the engine is very noisy. Then, there are a certain amount of vibrations felt on the floor. The gear lever also does quite the dance when pressing / letting off the accelerator.
The 1.3L diesel racks up an ARAI fuel efficiency figure of 18.2 kpl, whilst the 1.4L petrol gets an ARAI rating of 13.7 kpl.
The 1.4L DOHC Petrol: 
The petrol Enjoy is powered by a heavily reworked version of the 1,399 cc engine used in the discontinued Aveo sedan. Honestly, the engine wasn't much impressive in the Aveo and it isn't in the Enjoy either. Power ratings stand at 103 BHP (@ 6,000 rpm) and max torque of 131 Nm (@ 4,400 rpm). As was the case with the Aveo 1.4L, low end torque delivery is poor. The Enjoy petrol is sluggish to take off and nowhere as fun-to-drive as the diesel at low rpms. This engine needs to be worked to perform, thus you have to make judicious use of the accelerator. Expect to frequently downshift within the city too. Things are better out on the highway where the Enjoy petrol is noticeably quicker than her oil-burning sibling. Where the diesel was about low-mid range performance, the petrol only delivers at the top end. We ended up extremely surprised with the noise levels inside the cabin. To hear the petrol engine whine & growl every time you hit the throttle is a disconcerting experience. The Enjoy petrol completely misses the mark in terms of NVH. There isn't a doubt that the Ertiga 1.4L petrol offers a finer driving experience.
The gearbox is a typical Chevrolet unit. The throws are unduly long and the gearbox does feel notchy to use. Lastly, the lever suffers from an excessive amount of play.
The Enjoy's front suspension is a standard McPherson strut with coil spring type. The non-independent rear is a 5-link with coil springs. The suspension is soft & supple within the city. Ride quality in the low to mid speed range is very compliant, with the Enjoy even handling rough roads competently. The suspension is clearly tuned on the softer side. Comfort levels are acceptable on the highway. However, the rear has a tendency to bounce around, especially if the 2nd / 3rd row seats are empty. High speed damper & spring tuning are required, the Enjoy's derrière doesn't remain planted.
The Enjoy has a monocoque construction. This factor lends it superior on-road behaviour to the unwieldy body-on-frame UVs. It's fairly car-like and easy to drive in urban India. The light steering & compact dimensions give it an agility that the larger UVs can only dream of. Highway behaviour can best be termed as safe and conservative. While vehicle dynamics have predictable behaviour, body roll is more pronounced than in the Ertiga. The thin 175 mm tyres give up way earlier than the vehicle does (
an upgrade to higher quality rubber is advisable). What doesn't help is the steering that remains light at speed, is slow to react and has no feedback either. We recommend a conservative driving style with the Enjoy on the expressway.
The tall seating position, light controls, good driveability (diesel) and short turning radius of 5.5 meters make the Enjoy a breeze to drive in crowded cities. I was satisfied with the braking capability. It does take a while to get used to the brakes though; the pedal has a sharp bite and is perhaps over-servoed.
Chevrolet sources several Enjoy parts from China:
Diesel gets under-bonnet cladding. Doesn't help the NVH much though:
The Smaller yet Significant Things:
Twin bottle holders accommodate half-liter bottles only:
Fixed seat-belts. No height adjustment:
Front air-con vents get faux wood surrounds & a honeycomb grille (inside). Looks good:
The simple key fob:
Ultra-cheap plastic of the lock-unlock button. Makes a prolonged click-clack noise when used. This is where the "built-to-cost" nature of the Enjoy shines through:
The seat-back pockets (of the front seats) are the only real storage option for middle-row passengers:
Last row passengers get a 12V power socket:
An inside look at the butterfly windows (of the 3rd row). Good visibility:
Rear windshield wiper is a must-have on UVs:
Lift-up flap behind the 3rd row seat looks tacky. Actually, this entire area looks
unfinished:
Mirror's day / night feature doesn't have the usual flip-up type lever. Instead, you have to rotate this knob:
2nd row windows don't roll down all the way:
Thread moved out from the Assembly Line section. Thanks for sharing!
- Introductory ex-showroom, Delhi prices are as follows: - Enjoy 1.4 petrol:
LTZ - 6.99 Lakh
LT - 6.31 Lakh
LS (7-seater) - 5.54 Lakh
LS (8-seater) - 5.49 Lakh
- Enjoy 1.3 diesel:
LTZ - 7.99 Lakh
LT - 7.42 lakh
LS (7 seater) - 6.74 Lakh
LS (8 seater) - 6.69 Lakh
- Chevrolet says Enjoy is
Rs 40,000 to Rs 70,000 cheaper (depending on the trim levels) than its arch rival, the Maruti Suzuki Ertiga.
Source:http://www.oncars.in/Car-News-Detail...PV-launch/4098
Was waiting for this to come up for almost 2 weeks now. :)
Nicely written and captures all the information I would need. I wanted space and comfort and looks like I would get it here. I like the interior but the exterior is boring but I am ok with that.
Probably a sticker/paint job like the van in A team should do the trick.
Thanks a ton @noopster for making it happen so soon.
The pricings are out for the newly launched Chevrolet Enjoy.
Petrol
LTZ - 7 Seater 6.99
LT - 7 Seater 6.31
LS - 7 Seater 5.54
LS - 8 Seater 5.49
Diesel
LTZ - 7 Seater 7.99
LT - 7 Seater 7.42
LS - 7 Seater 6.75
LS - 8 Seater 6.69
The standard feature list captured from the launch event is given below.
Thanks for the review Noopster/Parry.
The Enjoy defintiely looks better than the Tavera, but still looks pain-jane. Not sure how this will fare in the market. No specific reason for the taxi segment to go for this, or did I miss anything.
I remember and earlier pic, with the rear bench folded, and there was enough space to lie down inside the Enjoy. Do not see how that can be done with the seat belts for the last bench fitted in.
Nice review. I would say the Ertiga wins this duel hands down in almost everything. The 3rd row seating and configuration is a letdown in both the UVs.
With this price, can we expect this to fly off the showroom? Where does this leave the Tavera?
Hi @noopster & @parrys, thank you two for the good work. However, could you please advice how good or bad the 165mm (161mm-Diesel) ground clearance is, as the vehicle has a soft suspension setup.
The plastics appear acceptable in the images, but, are they as poor a M800/ Alto/ Nano or bit like the the Wagon-R, Santro, old Swift, etc.
5.49 for an MPV? You must be kidding me! That is just 50k more than the Chevy Sail sedan. Looks like Chevy is really desperate to taste success in India
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