Review: Jetour T2 - The SUV I didn’t like at first, then didn’t want to give back

First impressions are supposed to matter. You get into a car, adjust the seat, set the mirrors, pull away from the kerb, and somewhere within those first few kilometres your brain quietly starts deciding whether you like what you are driving. With the Jetour T2, mine formed very quickly, and it was not especially positive.

I didn’t like it.

Not because it was slow, uncomfortable or badly put together. In fact, plenty about the T2 seemed promising from the moment I climbed aboard. The problem was the way it responded to my right foot. Its 2.0-litre turbocharged engine produces 245 PS and 375 Nm, so performance is not really the issue. The problem is accessing that performance smoothly.

Press the accelerator gently and there can be a moment where not very much seems to happen. So naturally, you give the pedal a little more. Then the turbo wakes up, the seven-speed dual-clutch transmission catches up with what you are asking for, and suddenly the T2 gives you more acceleration than you wanted a second earlier. Back off, try again, and the same thing can happen.

That becomes even more noticeable at lower speeds, especially going uphill. You feed in some throttle, wait for a response, add a little more, then suddenly the drivetrain wakes up and the T2 gives a small lurch forward. It can make you look slightly clumsy behind the wheel.

For the first day, this really irritated me. It was not terrible in the sense that the car was difficult to drive, but it was noticeable enough that it started colouring my opinion of everything else. Then something rather strange happened after a few days.

The T2 became smoother. Except it hadn’t. I had.

After spending more time behind the wheel, I stopped instinctively adding more throttle during that first moment of hesitation. I became gentler with the first part of the pedal travel and started anticipating what the gearbox was going to do. Pulling away became smoother, low-speed manoeuvring became easier, and going uphill stopped feeling like a test of throttle control.

The powertrain had not suddenly become better calibrated, and I still think this is something Jetour should improve. A modern SUV should not require the driver to adapt quite this much before the relationship between accelerator, engine and gearbox feels natural. But once I stopped fighting it, the rest of the T2 finally had a chance to make its case.

And there is quite a lot to like.

Let’s start with the obvious bit: just look at it. The Jetour T2 has presence in a way that a lot of similarly priced SUVs simply do not. It measures 4,785 mm long, 2,006 mm wide and 1,870 mm tall, with a 2,800 mm wheelbase, so it is a genuinely substantial thing.

The front is upright, the bonnet is broad, the arches are chunky and the sides are almost vertical. There is very little attempt to hide its size. Where plenty of modern SUVs are becoming softer and rounder, the T2 looks like somebody was given a ruler and told not to use curves unless absolutely necessary.

Somehow, that works.

There is an almost toy-like quality to the proportions. The body sits tall, the wheels are pushed towards the corners, and the 19-inch rims with chunky 255/60 tyres give it a properly rugged stance. It looks adventurous even when it is parked outside a shopping mall.

This became one of those cars where I would park it, start walking away and then turn around to look at it again. That might sound superficial, but cars are emotional purchases too. If you enjoy seeing something every morning before you even start the engine, that counts for something.

Once the T2’s design started winning me over, the way it rode made the argument even stronger. Looking at it, I expected compromises. A tall SUV riding on chunky tyres usually prepares you for some amount of body movement, vague responses and a slightly agricultural quality over uneven roads. The T2 surprised me.

Its suspension consists of MacPherson struts at the front and a multi-link arrangement at the rear, and the overall tuning feels much more resolved than the powertrain calibration. Over potholes, expansion joints and patched sections of road, the suspension does a very good job of rounding off the sharp edges.

There is enough compliance to make the car comfortable, but not so much softness that the whole body starts floating over undulations. That is important because the T2 is neither small nor light. At around 1,880 kg, there is plenty of mass moving around, and because the body sits so high, the suspension has quite a lot of work to do whenever the road starts changing direction.

Yet it generally keeps itself together well. Turn into a corner and there is body roll, of course, but the T2 does not flop onto its outside tyres and take another second to gather itself. The movement feels controlled and progressive. You can sense the weight and height, but you can also feel the suspension keeping both in check.

It is not a car that encourages you to attack corners, and that is not really the point. What matters is that you can drive it down a winding road without constantly being reminded that you are piloting something shaped like a shipping container.

The steering helps too. It is light enough that parking and low-speed manoeuvring are easy, but it does not become completely detached once you pick up speed. There is enough weight and consistency to make the car feel stable on the highway, and once you become familiar with the dimensions, placing it on the road becomes quite natural.

The width, however, is impossible to ignore. At just over two metres across, the T2 is genuinely broad, and you will notice that every time you enter an older Malaysian car park, squeeze between two parked cars or find yourself on a narrow road.

One thing I expected those tyres to ruin was refinement. They didn’t. In fact, sound insulation is one of the T2’s stronger qualities. At highway speeds, tyre noise is surprisingly well suppressed, especially considering the chunky tread underneath you. Wind noise is also kept nicely under control, which is impressive when the car has the aerodynamic profile of a small apartment block.

There is a funny contrast here. From the outside, the T2 looks rugged, aggressive and ready to disappear into the jungle. Inside, cruising at highway speed, it is actually quite calm. Conversation remains easy, the audio system does not need to be turned up excessively, and the constant background roar you sometimes get from more aggressive tyres is largely absent.

That sense of calm continues in the rear seats. Rear space is generous, with good knee room, plenty of headroom and tall windows that prevent the cabin from feeling claustrophobic. But the thing that genuinely surprised me was the floor.

It is completely flat.

That sounds like the least exciting feature imaginable until you actually try to seat three people across the rear bench. In plenty of SUVs, the middle passenger ends up sitting with their feet spread around a large transmission tunnel. In the T2, you do not have that problem. It makes the centre seat noticeably more usable.

Equipment is another area where the T2 gives you plenty to play with. There is a 15.6-inch central touchscreen, a 10.3-inch digital instrument display, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a Sony 12-speaker audio system, a panoramic sunroof, dual-zone climate control, wireless phone charging and ventilated front seats among the main highlights.

The passenger compartment feels appropriately spacious for something this large, but the boot is where those expectations become slightly more complicated.

Jetour quotes 580 litres of luggage capacity, expanding to 1,494 litres with the rear seats folded. Those are not bad numbers. The problem is that the T2 looks enormous. When you stand behind something that is nearly 4.8 metres long, more than two metres wide and shaped like it should be able to swallow half a camping shop, you expect the luggage space to be cavernous.

It isn’t.

There is enough room for normal family use, and I would not call the boot small in isolation. It just feels smaller than the exterior leads you to expect.

The rugged styling is not entirely cosmetic either. The Malaysian T2 uses Jetour’s XWD all-wheel-drive system and comes with multiple driving modes including Normal, Eco, Sport, Snow, Mud, Sand, Rock and X-Mode. There is also hill-descent control, crawl control and a transparent-chassis camera view to help when travelling over rougher terrain.

No, it is not a hardcore off-roader with low-range gearing and a collection of manually lockable differentials. But equally, it is not simply a front-wheel-drive crossover wearing chunky tyres and pretending to be adventurous. For owners who occasionally head onto muddy campsites, gravel roads or rougher tracks, there is real capability beneath the styling.

After several days with it, I had grown genuinely fond of the Jetour T2. That does not mean the original criticism disappeared. The drivetrain calibration remains its biggest weakness. There is enough power, and the seven-speed DCT works well enough once you understand how it behaves, but particularly at low speeds there are moments where accelerator input, engine response and gearbox behaviour simply do not feel as polished as the rest of the vehicle.

And that stands out precisely because so many other parts of the T2 feel surprisingly well sorted. The suspension feels mature, the cabin is quiet, body control is good for something this tall, rear space is generous, the flat floor is useful and the styling gives it enormous road presence.

Jetour does not need to make the T2 faster. It needs to make the first part of the accelerator pedal more predictable. If the engine, gearbox and throttle calibration all spoke the same language from the moment you pressed the pedal, the T2 would make a considerably stronger first impression.

Instead, it asks for patience, and that brings me back to where this review started. The Jetour T2 and I did not get along immediately. For those first few drives, the throttle response dominated my impression of the whole car and made it feel less polished than it actually was.

Then my foot adapted.

Once that happened, I started noticing how comfortably it dealt with bad roads, how composed it felt at highway speeds, how little tyre noise entered the cabin, how useful that flat rear floor was and how often I found myself turning around after parking it just to look at it again.

That is the slightly strange charm of the T2. It did not win me over by becoming flawless. It won me over despite its flaws.

At RM156,800, the T2 gives you a 245 PS turbo engine, all-wheel drive, plenty of equipment and one of the more distinctive SUV designs at this price point. There are more polished powertrains out there, and there are cars that are easier to understand within the first ten minutes.

But rationality is only one part of buying a car. Sometimes you want something that makes you look forward to seeing it in the driveway. Something with enough character that you forgive a few rough edges.

The Jetour T2 did not change during the few days I had it. I did. And somehow, the SUV I wasn’t particularly fond of on day one became the one I genuinely didn’t want to give back.

Jetour T2 2.0TD XWD specifications

Drivetrain: 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol, Jetour XWD all-wheel drive

Engine output: 245 PS 

Torque: 375 Nm

Transmission: 7-speed wet dual-clutch transmission

Suspension: MacPherson strut front, multi-link rear

Wheels / tyres: 19-inch alloy wheels, 255/60 R19 tyres

Boot space: 580 litres; 1,494 litres with the rear seats folded

Safety: Six airbags, Level 2 ADAS with adaptive cruise control, autonomous emergency braking, forward collision warning, lane departure warning, lane keeping assistance, blind spot detection and rear cross-traffic alert; panoramic view monitor, tyre pressure monitoring and 5-star ASEAN NCAP rating.

Off-road features: XWD all-wheel drive, selectable Normal, Eco, Sport, Snow, Mud, Sand and Rock modes, X-Smart Drive Mode, hill descent control, crawl control and transparent-chassis camera view.

Price: RM156,800