JAECOO J8 Disassembled: What is this FAKE Range Rover made of?

J.Coo brand is coming to Australia in the early 2025 and they are bringing their first car to our shores J7. We have already translated a video about J7 in the past, you can watch that video if you like, I don't want to repeat myself, but today I came across a new addition to one of those disassembly videos from the Russian channel Klubny Servis, the one that we really like from the one where they are disassembling J8. J8 is an upgrade obviously from J7, so we are absolutely going to see it in Australia if they're bringing J7, they will bring J8, just how we've seen with the other Cherry brand kind of lineup of vehicles Tigo 7, Tigo 8 now, Tigo 4, so there will be J7, there will be J8. So in this video we are not focusing on the classic kind of review that other channels would have shown you, like as in the panels and the infotainment system and whether it's nice or not looking from the outside, we're going straight to the core, we're going to one of those good old videos where they will show us what this car is made of and how the sum of that parts is put together. That's very important because the parts might be good, but how does it all come together? So it's one of those classic videos for this channel, translation of another video from Klubny Service, I'm very grateful for the original content as always, give all credits in the description of this video, the original link is there, as well as multitude of sponsors of this video which are mostly very generous sponsors who are giving you discounts on essential car electronics such as dashcams, we have a lot of new dashcams coming in reviewed on Auto Gear Reviews channel, special spin-off channel of this one in case you've been under a rock and don't know what happened here, so now all those reviews are on Auto Gear Reviews, as well as you get rather generous discounts, typically discount codes that take some 15-20% off the originally advertised price. Check out those links and enjoy the video. So J.COO J8 is also known in some parts of the world as Cherry Tiggo 9, in case you're confused about the brand. So it's positioned as a compared to their slightly less expensive and more mainstream Cherry Tiggo models or even the one that's coming to our shores, the J7. You can think of this intended kind of logical separation of sub-brands within Cherry Holdings as similar to what mainstream Toyota does versus Lexus. It's still owned by Toyota but it's more luxurious and more expensive. So what is J.COO J8 made of and most importantly, how? Like I said, the sum of these many parts comes together, which is very important. We will start by looking at the doors. So Ilya straight away points out the lack of tube-based reinforcement bars. If you watched previously translated videos, there are plenty of examples of that in case you don't know what I'm talking about. Instead, Cherry or J.COO here used these kind of sheets of specially bent metal, which would obviously absorb some kind of impact. But Ilya here is being a bit more skeptical because he thinks that tube-based classic reinforcement method would have worked better. Tailgate reminds Ilya ever so more of a Range Rover Evoque. Not because it looks this way, which it does, but because it's made of plastic. At least Ilya says it is. On one hand, this makes the tail end of the car lighter, but on the other, obviously, it is not as solid and it will not protect the passengers or luggage or whatever it is from tail end crash, if you were unfortunate enough to experience one. Now let's look at the boot space and how the floor elements are put together. It's a classic tub-based placement niche for the spare tire and we can see here factory applied Vibro insulation pads. There are a few of them that are supposed to suppress some of the road noise. This is good, you know. Is it good enough? Probably not. But is it good to have it rather than having nothing? Absolutely, of course it is. This is crazy and I'm sure you would agree because there are these sponge blocks that seem to be simply thrown into the void space of the wheel arches and between the panels. Not glued on, not somehow other fitted in, just literally thrown into in there. Even not being car service person, I personally conclude that this is rather funny. Ilya talks about how these floor panels are fit together. So he points out the welding seams versus welding spots. In some cases it's one, in some cases it's another. So why it's inconsistent like this and done this strange way? Who knows? He's as surprised as you and I are. There is a little gap or a door if you like, kind of like a cap of the fuel pump and the tank which is great to see as accessing these parts is always difficult if something goes wrong and Ilya acknowledges that not all cars have it. It's very good to see that J8 has it. Ilya praises the presence of horizontal reinforcement bar on the floor which is definitely supposed to save lives of the passengers in case of a side collision which is very very likely, kind of statistically likely I'm saying. But look at how it fits with the rest of the structure. We once again see the welding spots rather than a solid seam, welding seam and it's your guess and mine how good this reinforcement actually will do if it simply gets knocked off those welding spots rather than rather easily during a serious side crash. Again, Ilya is all about safety. He points it out several times to us. Furthermore, lots of other reinforcement elements we can see here and kind of his eye pans onto the electric wiring. There are some good examples of electric wiring here where the wires are tied together, taped together which is great to see. But it's also rather inconsistent because some are nicely tied together while some wires are not. They basically are just freely lying there and we spoke about that by the way recently when we reviewed Cherry Tigo 4 Pro which you can see on my channel as well in case you want to see other examples of similarly approached wiring. Very strange. There is a whole wiring electrical and if you like wind pipe system that passes the wind, the air for the aircon to power the aircon of the rear seats. Ilya makes a point that there is a lot of stuff here. Plastic constructions covering those wires, all that electronics under your feet which is all made of plastic and if you are large and heavy like he is and he admitted that he's like 150 kilograms light man, you'd probably be better off knowing not to put all your weight or not stomp there virtually as it sometimes happens on the floor as you're loading something up or just getting into the car without thinking. You might damage some of this if you're not careful. It's possible. Another floor reinforcement bar placed lengthwise of the vehicle going along the car but again the same spot welding approach that Ilya keeps hammering as probably the most disappointing part evidently that he sees everywhere in inside of this dismantled vehicle. Here they transition to showing us the stock sound insulation of JQ J8. Ilya says there are no issues disassembling it. It actually is nicely clipped into the car so it was relatively easy for them to take out which is good for any kind of car service people I suppose and this is how the car floor looks like where the carpet is molded together with this sound absorption underlay which Ilya again is praising and says look it's a pretty interesting solution and it's definitely better than what they've seen in many other China-made cars. That's great to see but okay is not good enough for them because they sell these services of course in Klubne service so they rip all that stock standard stuff out and replace it with premium materials they use for sound and thermal insulation. Apparently it's very very good and you can imagine it's of great value for people who use the cars in winters. So if you are in Canada I don't know Alaska somewhere like this I think this aftermarket thing would be almost a must. If I was there I would have done it personally but we don't have it in Australia and Australian consumer or average viewer of my channel probably wouldn't bother ordering something like this and applying as it's quite an expensive probably and involved process but it's interesting to see anyway. Now let's take a look at the underbelly of this JQ J8. I'm sure you were waiting for this moment starting with the rare part of the vehicle and seeing and kind of listening to Ilya here tell us that there is a lack of structural reinforcement. Apparently these strange looking elements that hold the rare bumper are also something that draws his attention. Then Ilya points out how the spare tire tub looks from underneath. Oh it's all covered in some kind of material that makes it look a bit messy and the purpose of which is hard to determine at least according to him. Is it extra moisture insulation I suppose or is it some kind of anti-corrosion spray? He cannot conclude here. We see the exhaust pipes and kind of move on to the fitting of the forward arm of the frontal suspension. Keep in mind that Ilya is a classically trained car body specialist and mechanic so while to you and I this might look I don't know okay nothing special he starts ranting on and on here about how unnecessarily complex and how weirdly put together and engineered it is. Where as one obvious example to my eye is that we have this arm rather thick arm as well which goes into that niche yeah and then it kind of in its turn it holds on its own set of bolts to keep itself in place. Apparently it's weird okay. Similarly weird fitting is for the support arms of the rear suspension. Maybe Ilya is being picky it's not for me to tell or decide but I do respect his absolutely undeniable expertise. If he says that the things are weird and they will potentially cause issues or just raise eyebrows of a car serviceman or a mechanic I'm happy to trust that this is weird. J8 has adjustable suspension apparently in terms of not in terms of height but in terms of rigidity and firmness. It's electronically controlled unsurprisingly and here you can see how the cable that is probably powering that mechanism is fitted to the whole construction. Yeah freely dangling by the looks of it dangerously close to a wheel and based on the length of the cable you can also see how much of the movement that suspension is allowing to have. Not much if I understood Ilya's point correctly here. Here we also see the transfer case that makes the car all-wheel drive technically but apparently according to his very quick kind of explanation here it's not equipped to the extent that it would vary the amount of rotating momentum that it passes onto and distributes between the left and the right wheel. So it's a slightly more basic all-wheel drive I understand not independent. Then he walks along the main driving shaft exhaust pipes and now moving on to the front suspension. Luckily here everything is a lot more traditional and therefore appears more reliable to his eye anyway. There are max person struts supporting the front wheel turning levers supporting arms classic german time proven design that Cherry luckily decided not to modify and not to reinvent the wheel here no pun intended. Ilya liked the braking system actually. These are the two piston brakes according to him that suggest a safer and more predictable stopping of J8 which is a large vehicle so it needs it. He doesn't like the lack of steel engine block protection underlay protection. There is only this duster as he refers to it like keeping the dust off and dirt off. It's a plastic sheet here instead. He also briefly mentioned that he doesn't like how DCT works in this J8. Apparently particularly becomes noticeable when you're driving this wonder car up the hill. All right time to summarize. Regardless of our age and where we live in whichever country right most of us want to believe in miracles or fairy tales. We want to own a Range Rover Evoque but we don't have the money and we want to believe that by buying something like this JQ J8 or J7 for that matter we've gotten an almost Range Rover but significantly astronomically cheaper. But then the sign of trouble is that the creator of this almost Range Rover wonder is putting all the interior bling and electronic screens front and center of you to bedazzle you further as a potential buyer. So no one should wonder like that there is some saving that was made except what you should wonder about is where are these savings made. Ah there it is a taste of reality. They saved on some of the materials and quality of assembly and engineering of this car in general by the looks of it. Some of it will hold and you know represents real modern solutions resulting in some kind of evolution of the car manufacturing of course and in probably some saving on the costs. While other elements of it you saw it and please be the judge yourself of whether what's been shown is good good enough or if it's not so good. Ilya says that he liked the interior actually a lot. It's rich and mostly comfortable but looking under the car he didn't like overall anything. He pointed out what's okay but overall he says I didn't like anything because a few of the new engineering solutions used in this J8 he's seen here for the very first time which to an eye of a professional of an experienced mechanic experienced professional it's really a good thing. And that's it for today my friends. This is the true and unbuttoned view of what JQ J8 really is and how it's assembled as a vehicle. I hope you found this insightful and maybe even a bit entertaining hopefully. As always please give this video a like if you've watched it all the way till the very end. You're very special to me. This also tells me that you want more of this content and that's your main way of telling me that you want more of this content helping me prioritize what I translate, record and show you next. I thank you very much for watching again and I'll talk to you next week about something else value cars related. Goodbye for now.