Review: Geely Borui’s Chassis & Suspension Introduction

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Last time we introduced Geely Borui’s front and rear anti-collision beams. Generally say, the materials used are quite good, they are all made of aluminum alloy, but the structural design has defects. So today we will take a look at the materials and design of Geely Borui’s chassis.

Decryption: The fuel consumption is high because…

In the last issue, we saw a heat sink above the front anti-collision beam when we introduced the anti-collision beam, but we did not find its true function from the surface, when we lift up the vehicle, we found that the heat sink was actually used to abstract heat for the gearbox, and it’s such a big chunk!

For today’s automatic transmissions, the radiator has become a small piece that looks like a water pump. Only some old models and performance cars still use large-area gearbox radiators, mainly to ensure the heat dissipation performance of the gearbox. But we all know that the large amount of heat indicates the low transmission efficiency of the gearbox, and a lot of energy is lost into heat.

This also explains why Geely Borui has high fuel consumption, the gearbox is the biggest problem. In fact, this gearbox technology from Australia is not advanced, and it is used to match the high-powered engine, it is really not well matched with this 1.8-liter turbo engine that has common dynamic parameter, it can’t fully play it out, the efficacy is low.

No wonder the new Geely Borui has replaced this gearbox, maybe the 3.5L engine will have better effect matching with this gearbox. (3.5L engine is no more available in China market)

In addition, the transmission radiator will cause the front heat to be overwhelmed: engine cooling Radiator, air conditioning condenser, booster intercooler, gearbox radiator, four piled together, it is just a stove.

Chassis: It‘s almost streaking

Wou can see the entire chassis structure of Geely Borui after lifting up the vehicle. To be honest, surface roughness of Borui’s chassis is so so, there is only one water tank lower guard plate at the bottom, the oil pan of the engine and gearbox has no guard plate, this might be problem, the oil pan of engine and gearbox will suffer a fatal blow if the chassis bottoming out.

In addition, Geely Borui’s chassis is sprayed with a large area of protective spray, but the lower guard plates on both sides of the bottom are not installed, and brake hose are almost exposed.

This kind of design is actually more common in Chinese brand, mainly to save costs, but the risk of being damaged by collision is still high. Some joint venture models have good protection on it.

Front suspension: All-aluminum double wishbone

Geely Borui features a full frame stamped front subframe, the front suspension adopts double-wish arm structure design, the upper arm and lower swing arm are all aluminum materials, which is very rare among Chinese brands.

Rear suspension: Originating from Mazda6(2nd-gen)

Geely Borui’s rear suspension is more interesting. The rear subframe is a one-piece structure, although the lower arm is made of double-layer stamped steel, the upper arm is made of aluminum alloy. In addition to the anti-roll bar, there is a longitudinal connecting rod connected to the body. It looks like a composite structure with double wishbone and multi-link.

Borui’s chassis is actually a reverse of Ford and Mazda’s platform, it may be gotten through Volvo, which we don’t know.

In fact, Borui project was established about 5-6 years ago. At that time, Mazda6 was still a relatively advanced model, but it has now been replaced by Mazda Atenza. Mazda6 and Ford Mondeo’s rear suspension structure has the advantage of not only taking up more space inside the car, but also maintaining relatively good effect.

Geely Borui replaced a part of Mazda’s suspension with the aluminum alloy, so the suspension is lighter, but it was not well adjusted. It was also reflected in the test drive, which is that the bouncing is much more, it is obviously lighter, but the spring and shock absorber are not well matched.

Summary: The quality of detail needs to be improved

In general, Geely Borui’s chassis is still OK, at least it reflected on the materials, the aluminum alloy is honest & kind. But in the details, we can still see the cost control. For example, the oil pan and the lower guard of the chassis. In fact, it is reasonable to say that it doesn’t cost too much money, it is better to install it before leaving the factory, which can improve the quality.

The only problem is the efficiency of the gearbox, matching and other issues. It is said that the mid-term refresh model has been replaced with a new gearbox, we are looking forward to its performance.

PS: The vehicle we dismantled is the 2015 Geely Borui China spec, our review is only for your reference due to the different trim level and year.