GWM Tank 300 review and buyer’s guide

It’s rare to see such truly appalling automotive engineering actually make it onto the road. The GWM Tank 300 could have been great, but the suspension setup makes it downright dangerous…

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The GWM Tank 300 is a surprisingly popular vehicle despite looking like an parts-bin knock-off mainstream 4X4. But there’s more than meets the eye here, and not entirely for the right reasons.

In markets like Australia there is fierce competition and are plenty of good 4-wheel drives on offer, and the GWM Tank 300 looks familiar because it borrows much of its design from the Jeep Wrangler. Unfortunately for GWM, the Tank 300 also replicated the Jeep’s inherent, serious deficiency with its suspension design.

The verdict here is dead simple: If you want off-road ability, buy a Mitsubishi Pajero Sport while you still can. If you want a decent medium SUV, check out the list of best medium SUVs.

But don’t be mistaken in thinking the Tank 300 is just a mini LandCruiser with a smaller price, because if any other mainstream SUV or 4X4 wagon was presented to the market with an appalling emergency braking fault like this, they would be publicly and rightfully shamed. Imagine if the 250 Series Prado lifted its rear wheels off the road under extreme braking.

From the two-inch step that runs around the circumference of the body, to the almost-horizontal front guards and vertical rear end, this has ‘off-road weapon’ written all over it. But copying is only good when that which is being copied is actually good.

The Jeep Wrangler is not a good vehicle. It’s inherently unstable and wants to roll over on basic suburban roads. It flipped twice in crash testing. It’s credentials as a good off-roader are what make it a poor on-road, and on-road is where the majority of Wranglers are driven, often by young drivers - sadly enough.

So given the Tank 300’s homage to the polarising Wrangler, one would hope GWM has rectified the original’s shortcomings.

The GWM Tank 300 is one of many newcomers from China, and from the rebranded Great Wall Motor company, now known in Australia in abbreviated form, GWM. GWM has also launched a Tank 500 in Australia which is basically a Toyota 300 Series LandCruiser/Prado clone. But at least that’s starting with a good OG 4X4 wagon.

So, GWM Tank 300 has the looks, admittedly. But does it have what it takes to actually be a decent vehicle underneath? It’s not looking good.

What GWM Australia has done is update the Tank 300 and usually when they do this, they take the opportunity to rectify any gripes in the first iteration.

The Tank 300 has the potential to decimate the sales of two makes and models in particular, and one of those is the Wrangler which we’ve already discussed in passing, but the other one is the Suzuki Jimny.

Enthusiasts will die on the hill that Jimny is a great little vehicle that’s affordable and reliable and magnificent off-road, these these sentiments are mostly true. But the Jimny is a deeply compromised vehicle that in the minds of most rational people should be treated with caution because it drives like rubbish on normal roads and it’s a safety abomination.

There’s a reason it remains ‘unrated’ by ANCAP, because they don’t want it to be crash tested, because it won’t perform to anything close to today’s five-star standard. The last time a Jimny was crash tested was back in 2018 (when the tests were much easier) and all it could manage was 3 stars.

The Tank 300 has all the makings of a Jimny with its off-road prowess, only without driving on normal roads like a new 40-year-old car.

Inside the Tank 300, there is actual legroom and shoulder room, there are big chunky B-pillars to stop you dying in a fairly mundane 40km/h side-impact crash, and the seats are comfortable - unlike the Suzuki Jimny.

DRAWBACKS

Driving and off-road capability

Driving is smooth and quiet, especially compared with the common diesel rivals. The turbo engine provides respectable acceleration and overtaking performance, and the eight-speed automatic seems to know what it’s doing most of the time, making intuitive selections and in good time.

The steering is light and feels easy to thread around suburban streets and even tight city laneways. There is some body-roll in corners, mainly during sweeping bends and gradual turns. In tighter and slower situations, body stability doesn’t seem as troubled.

During heavy braking the nose dips right down to the point where the rear axle becomes very unweighted. And then during full-power emergency stops (with ABS activation), the rear wheels actually leave the ground. This can be very dangerous. GWM needs to fix this ASAP.

Watch the full video report above to understand exactly what’s happening here and why…

You can feel a nose-heavy sense of weight distribution during cornering, too. Add a steep hill to the scenario and it begins to feel quite unsettled and nervous. But that’s pretty normal for an off-road-focused vehicle like this, and some buyers might accept that sacrifice as long as the off-road performance is good. Aside from the braking performance and the rear wheels coming off the ground, that is.

This is unacceptable from a brand purporting to sell such a capable vehicle with high road-holding in unsealed conditions. The problem with that premise is that in order to get to the off-road stuff, you have to travel on freeways, suburban roads, past shopping centres and school crossings - all places where you need this thing to stay planted under emergency braking.

If two wheels are coming off the deck, they are not helping the front ones maintain grip of the road. Any braking those rear pads and rotors are doing is null and void because they’re not reducing road speed.

What’s the worst that can happen here?

If you apply the brakes sufficiently hard during a corner, for example, this kind of reaction can easily rotate the vehicle in yaw - and that’s bad. Yaw is when the vehicle moves as if a giant toothpick is pushed through the centre and it spins on that axis. Yawing under brakes is especially bad if you’re on a country road with any kind of slope on one side. There’s every chance you go down that slope until gravity is overcome by some big, 200-year-old gumtree.

If you have any inclination to put your kids into a vehicle like this, in the manner of some cut-price beachside or bush-camping Wrangler-type summer fun machine - think again.

GWM needs to dedicate its engineers toward finding the source of this rear-wheel ascent under hard breaking and fix it immediately.

Rear wheels should not be leaving the road under heavy braking…

FEATURES & PRICING

GWM offers four main versions of the Tank 300 in Australia, divided up with two powertrains. You have the Lux and Ultra trim and these can be had with either a 2.0-litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder or a 2.0-litre turbo hybrid.

These are decent options on paper, with the base turbo generating 162kW and 380Nm, and the hybrid developing an impressive 258kW and 615Nm. Great figures for this specific class, particularly the hybrid. In fact, hybrid technology is still quite scarce in this segment, so points to GWM there for coming in quick.

So, what segment does the Tank 300 compete in exactly? VFACTS categorises it as a large SUV below $70,000. That means it sits beside the Toyota Prado, Mitsubishi Pajero Sport, and its brother-from-another-mother, Jeep Wrangler. Against those, the specs do stack up well.

For the starting price of $46,990, the sheer number of features and luxuries you get is worthy of praise. The base model comes with an electric sunroof, surround-view parking cameras, adaptive cruise control, front and rear USB ports, something called “Comfort-Tek” leather upholstery, and a reasonably comprehensive array of driving modes and functions for off-roading, including a rear differential lock.

Moving up to the Ultra adds a front differential lock, as well as a premium nine-speaker sound system, Nappa leather, changeable interior lighting colours, wireless phone charging, heated and ventilated front seats with power-adjustment for the driver, and even a massage function.

These features will cost you an extra four grand, though. If you’re purely focused on a budget, it’s probably not worth going that distance. Especially as this is getting close to the prices of the entry-level veterans of this segment.

Boot space is good in that it is a very square and boxy cavity. However, a volume figure hasn’t officially been confirmed for the Australian market. Other sources seem to suggest around 400 litres. That doesn’t compare well against many of the popular rivals. The fact that it isn’t offered with a third row further compounds the deficit.

MAIN COMPETITORS

Like most 4WD wagons and large 7-seat SUVs, the GWM Tank 300 is in this mish-mash category, so it’s important to understand that if you want to shop apples against apples, this vehicle should go up against Ford Everest, Mitsubishi Pajero Sport, Toyota Prado and Isuzu MU-X.

Despite being more expensive vehicles, they are just built better, they’re going to be more capable off-road with better R&D baked into their drivetrains and overall performance - and they’re built be known, established brands.

Consider a Mitsubishi Pajero Sport, Ford Everest, or the LandCruiser 300 if you want highly capable off-road vehicles.

If on the other hand, you want more of a big SUV but without the hardcore 4WD ability, you’ll be comparing it to tthe likes of Hyundai Santa Fe, Kia Sorento, Mitsubishi Outlander or Subaru Outback - all of which have very good all-wheel drive systems (that are not low-range off-roaders like Pajero Sport or Everest) but are still remarkably capable at ‘soft-roading’.

These vehicles might be a bit more expensive than the Tank 300, but you do get what you pay for.

Here are the Tank 300’s closest rivals on paper as far as capability and functionality goes:

SUZUKI JIMNY

Power: 75kW @ 6000 rpm | Torque: 130Nm @ 4000rpm | Pwr-wt ratio: 63kW/t

Length: 3820mm | Width: 1645mm | Height: 1720mm | Wheelbase: 2590mm

Kerb wt.: 1185kg | Gross Vehicle Mass: 1545kg | Towing cap.: 1300kg (braked), 350kg (Unbraked) | Towball D/load: 75kg

Cargo volume: max luggage: 1113L | min luggage: 211L

Turning circle: 11.4m | Ground Clearance: 210mm | Departure Angle: 47 ° | Breakover Angle: 24 °

Crash tested: 2018 (ANCAP) Report >

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JEEP WRANGLER

Power: 200kW | Torque: 400Nm | Pwr-wt ratio: 101kW/t

Length: 4334mm | Width: 1894mm | Height: 1879mm | Wheelbase: 2459mm

Kerb weight: 2057kg | Gross Vehicle Mass (GVM): 2404kg | Towing capacity (braked): 1497kg | Towing capacity (unbraked): 750kg | Towball download: 150kg

Cargo volume: 898L min | 2050L max

Turning circle: 10m | Ground clearance: 257 mm | Approach angle: 44 ° | Departure angle: 37° | Breakover angle: 27.8°

Crash tested: 2024 (IIHS) Report >

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ENGINE

With the 2.0-litre turbo engine option, the ‘GW4C20NT’ unit is a GWM product, developed by GWM. It passes Euro 5 emissions standards and spits out an average of 218g/km of CO2.

The emissions output isn’t particularly good considering the segment’s most popular vehicle, the Prado, is rated at 209g/km. And that’s from an engine that operates with 800cc of additional combustion volume, and it runs on diesel. The 2.4-litre turbo-diesel Pajero Sport is rated at 212g, and the 3.6-litre V6 petrol Jeep Wrangler is rated at 239g.

Fuel economy isn’t great, with an official average of 9.5L/100km. For the amount of power and torque it produces, there are more energy-efficient options out there. The V6 Jeep, for example, is rated at 10.3L/100km yet it produces significantly more power, at 209kW.

Going for the hybrid seems to be a smarter choice. Not only is it more powerful, and, more importantly, generates a lot more torque, this option is rated at 8.4L/100km. The average emissions output drops to 196g/km. And with its 91-litre fuel tank, that equates to a possible range of 962km against 789km in the regular 2.0L turbo.

FUNCTIONALITY

The Tank 300 has a maximum braked towing capacity of 2500kg. Considering the kerb weight is 2155kg, that seems like a reasonable weight to be hauling around. But, with a GVM of 2552kg, it doesn’t leave much payload for passengers and gear if the maximum 2500kg is used up (based on the 2.0T model).

As a result, this vehicle is not recommended for those interested in towing with a big trailer on a regular basis. Many of the competitors manage a higher payload and offer a higher braked towing rating, and are thus better-prepared for this.

Plug-in hybrid version pictured here

Fortunately, the Tank 300 is great off road. The ground clearance of 224mm is average, but the steep approach (33 degrees) and departure (34 degrees) angles mean it can clamber over obstacles without snagging the body.

There’s a low-range driving mode that provides excellent low-speed gearing and torque for really tough conditions, and the front and rear diff locks on the Ultra provide exceptional potential. 

Buyers might want to swap out the standard Michelin Primacy road tyres for something more aggressive, if off-road trips are going to be a regular hobby.

INTERIOR

The Tank 300 comes in five-seat configuration only, which means it is not as suitable for growing families as many of the seven-seat options in this class. However, this is a spacious and neatly-presented cabin nonetheless.

With a tall and upright body structure, headroom and legroom are not an issue. The seats are also quite soft and comfortable, and there is a surprisingly wide spread of quality-feel materials in here. Including a soft-touch upper dash, metallic trimmings, and even Mercedes-Benz-inspired speaker grilles and climate vents.

Tank 300 has an interior that is the antithesis of a Suzuki Jimny; comfortable, well equipped; stylish

The seating position is very perched-up and commanding, but, as typical with Chinese-brand vehicles, there is a lack of available steering column adjustment. This means it can be difficult to find a natural driving position, depending on your arm-to-leg length ratio.

For this reason, it might be worth considering waiting until the Australia ride and handling division of GWM Australia has had a chance to fettle with the next generation of Tank 300 to get the ergonomics spot-on. They’ve got the former Holden engineering wizard Rob Tribiani leading the team and considering his CV includes the Colorado, Trailblazer and various global GM off-road products, he should be able to fix this issue fairly easily.

GWM has done a great job with the technology inside the Tank.

There’s a 12.3-inch touch-screen media interface offering Android Auto and Apple CarPlay connectivity, a nine-speaker stereo, and another 12.3-inch gauge cluster display. It’s a decent software system as well, running easy-to-read apps and menu functionality.

If you happen to also enjoy having children in your life, unlike in the Jimny, there is actual space for kids and they’re not exactly being subjected to Guantanamo back there. The seats are plush, they adjust, there’s room for a schoolbag in the footwell and it doesn’t feel like you’re riding a bronco into battle in terms of ride quality.

The level of sound attenuation in the cabin is surprisingly good (for such a price point) and as a result, you’re not going to fatigue from being passively assaulted with various stimuli on your 4-hour trek back from the wilderness…like in a Jimny.

CONCLUSION: Should you buy one?

Not yet. These Chinese brands are growing rapidly and they will, undoubtedly, take over a big chunk of the market in the future. But at this stage it seems GWM is still learning what is internationally accepted as a standard level of engineering. There is little evidence here to suggest it has reached that threshold.

Until it catches up, you’re better off steering clear and opting for an established rival from a brand with more experience building these types of vehicles.

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