BYD F5 Suri: Are you ready for the next wave?

THE F5’s spec sheet is amazing, considering its maker BYD is a new car company from China. It even comes with a remote control system which allows you to get out, park the car in a tight space.

I’ve had the pleasure (or should I say displeasure?) of driving a whole load of China-made cars which were generally, in my opinion, unfit for public consumption and road use. Stories of door handles coming off or various pieces of trim falling off, foglamps included, with all but the force of closing the doors are common, rampant and crucially for me at least, very real.

Another friend borrowed a China-made car but never left the dealer’s car park because the brand new China car’s clutch failed, pedal going to the floor. Or the time we were shooting a China car, which had barely a thousand clicks on its odometer, was practically overheating being just parked under the shade. You can excuse me then perhaps, for not reviewing these China cars. I’ve had enough car breakdowns in my life to last three to four lifetimes. I didn’t want to add more of these highly unfavorable incidents and possibly be liable for them.

But BYD’s F5 Suri has, cautiously, erased the stigma for me and China-made cars. BYD, an acronym for Build Your Dreams, is a China car company that, rather than focusing on cheap-as-dirt basic transportation, is promoting and espousing high tech and cutting edge.

On the surface, the F5 Suri looks good: It doesn’t look ugly, comical or just plain weird. Nope, it looks generically handsome, in the same vein as Toyotas from a generation past looked. It looks decent, something you won’t be ashamed of being caught dead in. Seriously, it looks, well, like a normal car, not one that might as well say, “Hey look at me, I’m stupid for buying this car.”

The F5 has front foglamps, rear foglamps, projector-type headlights, Bosch boneless wiper blades,  roof fin antennae, fashionable 16-inch wheels on 205/55R16 tires plus tilt and sliding moonroof. Inside, you get full faux leather interior, very decent-feeling interior plastics, a multi-media system with GPS/SatNav, 10 speakers, Bluetooth phone and music connectivity, six sonar parking sensors, a reverse camera steering wheel adjustment for rake and so much more. Underneath the skin, there’s a 1.5-liter gasoline direct injection engine, that features variable valve timing and a turbocharger thrown in for good measure, delivering 151.89 horsepower and 240 Newton-Meters of torque. Sounds like a really cruel joke or too good to be true? Nope, read it and weep, this is all true. The icing on the cake? The F5 comes with a 6-speed dual-clutch transmission.

But wait, there’s also ABS-EBD brakes with ESP and six airbags in total. Last time I checked, all these features combined can only be found in cars costing well north of P6 million.

Simply put, the F5’s spec sheet is jaw-droppingly amazing considering they are a new car company from China. It even comes with a remote control system which allows you to get out, park the car in a tight space without the hassle of getting out of the car once it’s parked. But I admit I was too nervous, given how jerky the car drives at low speeds, to try it.

SOME interesting features are (from top to bottom) the skylight, dual mode power sunroof, spacious trunk and a button for electronic drive mode.

Moving off, and the F5 displays its only almost-fatal link in its otherwise impressive chain mail: The dual-clutch transmission is the jerkiest, clunkiest, roughest and most abrasive I’ve yet to try in parking lot speeds and slow-moving traffic. I’ve tried various dual-clutch transmissions from different makes and models but none were as bad as this. It’s so bad that what normally takes a 5-minute drive from our home to the supermarket has gotten me and my wife nauseous. Really nauseous. Not a good impression indeed. In sport mode, it’s even worse, and the gas pedal’s response to input is very delayed, but once it gets moving, it heaves forward aggressively, probably translating my foot’s Filipino to the ECU’s Chinese-Mandarin, and onto the throttle butterfly’s Chinese-(insert your Chinese dialect here). Three times I almost crashed the F5 while parking in our tight carport, run over people and bang the wheels against the curb, because it keeps lurching forward unexpectedly. I ultimately leave it in manual mode and the car finally behaves somewhat passably. Admittedly after a few days and some adjustment to my seating position (to keep only my ankle moving and isolate the rest of my leg’s movement), it felt more cohesive and predictable, but the fact that it needs some getting used to limits its appeal for potential buyers.

In open traffic, however, the foibles of the dual-clutch transmission is long forgotten. The F5 is fast. Stupid fast, it’s almost comical. People give the F5 Suri a curious once-over in traffic lights, but their faces look priceless, I’d imagine, as soon as I floor the throttle, and the front tires chirp as they struggle for traction. The F5 Suri accelerates like a bat out of hell, overtaking cars non-stop. On the open highway, I can easily see the F5 Suri topping out at well over 210 kilometer per hour. Interesting to see what this can do if one can acquire said F5 Suri, bolt-in a roll cage, sticky tires, firmer suspension, better brake pads and simple intake and exhaust mods then take it out onto the track, or more suitably, a hill climb or rally cross.

Inside, the seats lack a bit of thigh support for long-limbed drivers and the radio’s signal comes and goes when surrounded by tall buildings or near the LRT/MRT which causes significant EMI that probably cancels out the radio station’s signals.

The 1.5-liter engine has good low-end response that transforms to amazing mid-range grunt. The top-end tapers off significantly, probably to preserve the engine and to prevent the transmission from reaching its torque limit and grenading itself in the process. Thankfully, the suspension is Euro-firm to keep the chassis composed, and the brakes are strong, and offer firm feel for excellent modulation. The steering is light, par for the course, but otherwise, flat out, the F5 Suri again makes one question why we’re not driving this, instead of the usual Japanese, Korean and American suspects. When I get home, I park it. And again I’m reminded why.

Clunky, jerky dual-clutch transmission notwithstanding, the F5 Suri leaves me very highly impressed. Sure, it’s still got quite a way to go, it lacks finesse, is still rough around the edges  and lacks the panache of the established brands. But it’s a very good effort from a newbie car manufacturer. That I constantly find myself comparing the F5 Suri to a Vios, City, Accent or Rio instead of its fellow Chinese stablemates is proof that BYD is the best car manufacturer to come out of China.

BYD is part of the second wave of cars from China. With the first wave of cars and brands pretty much dead, it’s refreshing to see that China knows not just to copy but to take the most cutting edge technology and adapt it into a more affordable platform. It is quite pricey for P1,018,000 but the technology It packs (albeit needs some fine-tuning at the very least) makes up for its price tag.

BYD represents a quantum leap for China-made cars. It’s still not exactly at the same level as the established brands but it’s closer than ever, especially considering this is their first generation of cars. Impressive technology, impressive build-quality. This is the future.