GWM TANK 300 after 70000 Kms - Honest Review!

Welcome back to the channel everyone. Today we're going to be following once again the channel, lovely channel that I featured in the last video, A Diary of a Viking. It's a Russian channel that interviews real owners of real vehicles, preferring tank vehicles and GWM vehicles. So today we're following our host as he interviews another owner of a tank 300 this time around. It is a lovely man called Dennis. Dennis is also a co-founder and a manager of one of, I understand, many Russian clubs of tank owners. This one is just referred to as Tank 300 Russia Club. That's based in Saint Petersburg, Russia. So we are going to listen to what Dennis has to say about his real ownership of Tank 300, that he is not just driving, you know, in the city. He is actually using it as the car is intended to be used. He is towing a boat with it. He is using it for some off-roading. He goes into the forest. He has a very active lifestyle that a lot of us city dwellers probably would be jealous of a little bit. I know I am a little bit. So without any further ado, let's be thankful to the creators of this original video. Let's give all the links and credit to the owners of the original footage in the description of the video, as I always do. Treat it as a showcase of another wonderful channel and content for you, translated from Russian into English. Give me a quick like if you still appreciate this, and if you still cannot read Russian, and I am making it a little bit easier for you to consume the content you otherwise would not have access to. This video is sponsored by the old friends of this channel, AutoCast. AutoCast are very well established on the market, manufacturers of wireless Android Auto and wireless Apple CarPlay AI boxes, which is basically a wireless adapter for your car. If your car is struggling with wireless connectivity to built-in wired Android Auto, wired Apple CarPlay, then AutoCast is one of the major, biggest brands that are offering massive discounts to my community to check out. Check out the links in the description below. They have a lot of units. Lately, I've reviewed a couple of them, and this is also your chance to check the Auto Gear Reviews, sister channel of mine, of Value Cars Australia, where I go in-depth into unboxing, installation, and other things about these units. Check them out. Without any further ado, let me give you highlights of what Denis and our channel owner Ivan are talking about. So like I already mentioned, Denis is a co-founder of Tank 300 Russia Club that was founded, so they owned the car a little bit before August last year, 2023, as far as I have understood. Ivan is asking him, Denis, why did he decide to buy Tank 300 specifically, and what was his prior history with vehicles that are used for active lifestyle. And Denis says he used to have Lada Nivas as any Russian off-roader is supposed to have. I'm sure you would say, let's say, tongue-in-cheek to each other and accept it as a friendly joke here. So he had Lada Nivas. He owned three different models of Lada Nivas, in case you don't know. Well, obviously, Lada also has a lineup of vehicles, different models. My dad had the classic 2121 model, if that tells you anything, the shorty kind of, the one that looks actually very much like Tank 300 in many ways. So my dad had it back in Russia, which is a long time ago, 30 years ago, probably it was. Now, at the moment of recording of this video, and so did Denis. Denis had three different Nivas, 2121, and then the long wheelbase ones, the elongated ones. I don't know the exact number model, but he had all of them. And then he basically had to change, or decided to change. So Ivan says, weren't you skeptical about the Chinese car, to buy a Chinese car? Because once again, as I mentioned to you in previous video about the owner of Tank 500, in Russia, as opposed to the popular belief, there are a lot of trolls and a lot of people who are still not anti-Chinese per se, but they are snobbish, and they are still as dismissive as your fellow Aussie bogans, who are sometimes raising their ugly heads in my comments, until I whack them all a little bit there and moderate. Only those that are rude, of course, it's okay to disagree with me. It's okay to have a constructive dislike, absolutely okay here. But basically, there are plenty of the same kind of tone people in Russia. So Denis was not one of them, but he raises his hand and says, listen, you know what? I was actually also very skeptical about Chinese cars. He used to be a massive VAG, the Volkswagen Automotive Group, Aktiengesellschaft fan, and an owner of Audi Q7, that he used for off-roading and for day-to-day driving. He bought it brand new, and he had it for 10 years, an Audi Q7. He had 250,000 kilometers on that Q7 when he sold it and felt like it was a change, time for a change. So Tank 300s were just rolling out in Russia around that time in 2023, and he went into the dealership, took a look at it, liked it, but was worried straight away, as a lot of us were when we were kind of reading online the specifications and were watching the first videos emerging from the owners, that it's only a two-liter petrol engine, at least there in Russia. That's the version that he has. So he was like, I need to tow stuff, I need to go through some wilderness, how will it be on a highway, especially feeling after Audi Q7. And at the dealership he was during the winter, so he went for a test drive and thought that he will need to turn on all the part-time 4x4 explicitly in order for the car to be okay on the road, and was very impressed because he didn't. He didn't do it, and it was still behaving nicely, so that was the first sign that the vehicle was actually, I struggle to call it a car, it's not really a car, it's a vehicle, it was actually behaving a lot better than he thought it would. And he, once again, why did I give you all this history of his ownership? Because it is to give some credibility to the fact that he's a discerning driver. He's not just someone who drove one ladder, then jumped onto a tank and thought it's the best thing since light bread. No, he's a discerning driver. Sound insulation was great, he says. Couldn't hear the engine at first, like, you know, was very impressed with that. So it wasn't an emotional purchase for him. He went a couple of times for a couple of test drives. He didn't just straight away leave his money there and sign on the dotted line. He went a couple of times, a couple of test drives, decided to take it. Ivan says winter performance, since they're talking about winter, anything failing over time. I know it has not been that long, but the car currently, at the moment of them recording their interview, is at 71,000 kilometers, so it's fair. It's a fair distance, right? Dennis says absolutely no problem. Road grip, of course, varies depending on how and if you drive like a suicidal kamikaze or if you're driving like a normal person. It's a brick on wheels, and I'm glad to hear from Dennis, who is a lot more experienced, to confirm these thoughts of my own, that it's a brick on wheels. If you understand that it's a brick on wheels and you drive it as such, obviously helps if you have prior experience of driving something like a Jeep or like a UAZ in Russia or like a Lada or something that is not that refined and doesn't have every single bum-wiping electronic assistant that kind of drives the car for you. As long as you're used to that, you're going to be fine. How is it in long drives? So he is using the car for long drives. He's not just for a kind of shorter distance, but like off-road kind of play. He is taking it on a highway. He goes from region to region in Russia, and he says it's great, not a problem. They go for longer drives to the seaside, to the mountains. Very pleased so far. He had installed a custom suspension, though, an aftermarket kind of other brand suspension, not a stock suspension, but makes an effort here to tell us that stock suspension was also very good in his opinion. But this one, aftermarket one, obviously somewhat more refined. He decided to put more money into it. It feels better, more maneuverable, feels better control on the road, less tilting during the corners because it's a brick on wheels, right? So apparently that suspension handles it better, especially during overtaking other vehicles at high speeds. That's what he said, okay? What about the stock brakes then that a lot of people complain about, apparently even in Russia, so they talk about that. Ivan here says that he personally owned a Tank 300 and he didn't have any particular issues. What about Dennis? Dennis says that also no major issues unless you are towing an overloaded trailer. Overall, it works all fine, nothing horrible, but you do notice then some kind of potential issues with the grip, with the brakes maybe. But people talk apparently about overheating of brake pads being common on Tanks, at least reported by some channels. Dennis says never any overheating as long as, again, you're not a maniac, you don't just speed up to 100 and then expect to stop instantly with the trailer. At the back, as long as you don't have unreasonable expectations, you should be okay. It's fine. And he says, I'm not even driving like a grandpa. He says I quickly accelerate on the highway, I sort of relatively quickly brake, but none of that happened. Another thing is, another myth that they're referring to is that overheating of the engine because of the trailer towing. Like, what about that? It's a two-liter engine, no one defends the fact that it's a smallish petrol engine, but what about performance? Dennis says that out of these 71,000 kilometers currently on the clock, at least 30,000 of that was with a trailer. The variety of trailers, he says as well. Boats or a normal trailer loaded with quad bikes. Never any overheating of the engine issues. He is guessing that if there are issues that you're experiencing, the first thing to check is if your radiator, the front radiator, has been unwashed and is blocked up by dirt, dust, because of whatever else you were doing. The first thing to check is if your radiator, if your cooling systems are clean. That is the first thing to check because obviously the car has a very exposed frontal grill and obviously they're used for active lifestyle, whether it's sand, whether it's dirt, whether it's mud. If you have not properly washed it through the radiator with a hose, then I suppose something of that overheating might happen. He's not denying that it's possible, but it never happened to him because obviously he is a common sense driven person who looks after his car. Now, what about tuning? What about any aftermarket additions? Ivan asks him. Dennis says that he didn't want to do anything. We obviously know that he installed the extra suspension. He changed the tires as well, but he didn't want initially. He wanted to leave it all as stock as possible to experience the vehicle and it was all very, very past mark, so to speak. Yeah, and also when Tank 300 just launched in Russia, there were simply not that many aftermarket tuning options available for it, which is also understandable. He has installed AT tires that were widely recommended by the owners straight away, so that was his first thing that he did. It's also a small boot space. He quickly addresses it here, but because he travels a lot, it requires extra organization. So there were some aftermarket little bits and pieces installed, such as those special cargo nets, and he says we also have some custom-made shelves that are being slid into here when we're traveling long distance. Yeah, so and it's very funny here, a little funny kind of remark. He says, I actually also have a big cage for my parrot that I travel with sometimes, and I have a special contraption that holds it when I travel with my parrot. So he, as any real Russian pirate should, he travels with a pirate. Go figure that. That was fun for me to watch. Good on you, Dennis mate. All right, a few words mentioned about the Tank 300 Russia club. Let's give them the light of day here. They deserve it. We borrow their content, but we promote their content as well. It's about a one-year-old club. Several people decided to organize into this social group, which is great to hear. It's a social ecosystem, as you can imagine. As any club, sometimes YouTube channel subscribers for bigger channels, not something of my size, I suppose, but people gather, they catch up, they organize these kind of events, drive together somewhere. But these clubs originate from different platforms. YouTube, Telegram, they're using quite a lot messaging app, Facebook sometimes, you name it. The club is not purely just people drive out for a picnic as families, but they plan their trips. They organize specific itinerary, specific scenic intercity routes, that kind of stuff. And he also quickly points out his stickers on one of the windows of his tank that are signifying basically the notable big drives that their club has done across Russia. So they have done at least, what, three there? Yeah, so and Ivan says, so how many people are currently sort of going for these little drives with you guys like as a club? And he says between 18 and 23, so about 20 on average teams. I assume 20 vehicles, which is quite a bit, quite a bit. Driving distances, once again, he again confirms that it's 71,000 kilometers on this tank with no issues. He knows another person in the club with the same distance, but he also knows someone apparently in person who has a tank with 140,000, double that. But we're not referring to that video or that knowledge because it's not, it's just mentioned here as someone Dennis knows, and I'm going to take his word for it, but it's not someone whose experience we are sharing here on this, in this video, in this translated video for you. What about the haters? So every content creator sooner or later addresses the haters, talks about it, even I kind of slide into this, even though people say just ignore the trolls, which I do, and I ban them and whatever, I don't care. But it's interesting to hear what they have to say. He, once again, Dennis highlights that there are a ton of them in Russia as well, not just here, not just Aussie snobs or whoever they are, English-speaking, anti-Russia, anti-China, whatever. They are in Russia as well, people who hate Chinese cars or whatnot. I don't even know. Luckily, Dennis is a rather philosophical person with a good sense of humor. I try to be the same. I know I can be better, but I try to. And it doesn't seem to bother him as much, okay? And he basically summarizes it very nicely. He says that people either are limited in a way that they let the stereotypes and outdated knowledge rule their lives, or they are simply still trying to self-justify their own choices using the most primitive method of poo-pooing other people's choices. Do you know what I'm saying? So that's very interesting, and I agree with you. Australia, Russia, it's all the same. People are everywhere. That's what you have to understand. Paint. He quickly points out that stock paint is really, really good on Tank 300. He's using the car off-road, driving through forests, past tree branches, kind of scraping the car a little bit softly, I assume, but still scraping the car. No problem. And Ivan says, why did you choose orange? He says, because it's better in terms of washing than, let's say, black that always looks dirty, and also because orange is new black. That's why. Aftermarket stuff, a little bit further conversation between them here. As we can see, Dennis installed a nudge bar, complains a little bit about the frontal cameras getting dirty, the frontal road visibility cameras getting dirty during off-roading, but how could they not? They're so exposed there on that flat-facing grill, like perfectly understandable. And I only just noticed that he applied one of those aftermarket blackout masking solutions to hide chrome, because he even mentions here, I don't like chrome. That's one thing I don't like. So he made it a bit darker. And it's actually, I personally don't on the fence about it. I kind of like it, but I probably wouldn't bother. But how about you? Let me know in the comments down below, if you would like to share. So Dennis plans to keep this car for about five years with his amount of traveling, in his opinion, before he's going to exchange it for perhaps a newer model of Tank 300. But no immediate plans. Any incidents? Well, once Dennis apparently left his dentist while still being under the influence of painkillers. Slightly less alert, obviously, on the road. Take note, crazy QLD. My Queensland drivers do not drive under the influence of anything, my friends. And he basically, Dennis reversed into another car without seeing it. He even says that my safety systems of my tank bleeped and kind of tried to stop me, but the other guy didn't. So they kind of collided. There was nothing bad, because he was reversing. And here is another wonderful example of how good it is to have a spare tire on the tailgate, because he basically was shielded from the impact, but the other car's bonnet was smashed. Overall, massive fan of the car, massive fan of Tank 300. He recommends only to put the protected transparent film over the top of the most exposed and impact prone surfaces, especially if you travel long distances or go through forests, whatever it is. Panels above the front wheels, A-pillars, optionally, the roof. He says, look, you might want to protect that. It's up to you. But the summary is that, Dennis says here, it's not my summary. He says, don't believe 70% of information and mainstream YouTube channels and content creators who financially benefit from promoting Japanese, any other brands that they're promoting, mainstream, whatever the sponsor tells them to promote, they're promoting to you. And if it is in someone's interest to poo-poo tank, they're going to poo-poo tank, because bad news sell as well as the good news sell. Do you know what I mean? I completely agree with him here. It's controversial statements that such as claiming that your tank will fail, your engine will explode. Guess what I found out? So you like, oh, what did he find out? Completely resonates with me. Was happy to hear it from someone else. These people click, more money for them, obviously. And in the end, you feel like you've been taken for a ride and not in a good way. Okay. Fear-mongering and badge snob flexing is what the anti-tank community basically in Australia, in Russia, that's what makes them very, very similar. Hopefully, this was insightful for you. Hopefully, you're not a badge snob or some kind of flexer who tries to still self-justify about your choices while poo-pooing others. Don't fall for this crap. And happy new year. Let's start 2025 on a positive note. More awesome videos coming. Hopefully, you will stay my subscriber. And if you are not yet, why not? What are you waiting for? Subscribe to the channel. Give the video a like so that more people can see our little campfire in the woods and come to it. That's how YouTube algorithm works. And I'll talk to you next week about something else value cards related in Australia and beyond. Goodbye for now.