THE most amazing thing about Great Wall's new 4WD is the price.

t a driveaway $23,990 it sends a powerful message to cash-strapped families looking to update the family bus.

That gets you a good-looking vehicle with leather upholstery and climate-controlled airconditioning.

The Chinese-built and badged five-seat, compact off-roader sits on the same chassis and shares the same powertrain as the recently released V240 ute.

It’s powered by a 2.4-litre Mitsubishi four-cylinder engine and comes with a five-speed manual only at this stage.

This vehicle has even got low range four-wheel drive which means you can take it off road with confidence.

The ride is old school, harsh and jiggly like 4WDs used to be, but that’s only on rougher roads,

What the X240, known as the Hover in its home country, misses out on is the arsenal of safety gear that has almost become par for the course these days: things like six airbags and electronic stability control.

The utes scored only two stars in crash tests, so it is likely this vehicle is not going to do much better.

It does, however, score two airbags for the driver and front passenger, as well as ABS anti-lock brakes with brake force distribution.

Produced under license, the 2.4-litre four is good for 100kW of power and 200Nm of torque between 2500 and 3000 revs.

It’s not gong to set the world on fire, but does a reasonable job of moving the wagon’s 1830kg bulk.

What this vehicle is really crying out for is a turbo diesel, but this and an automatic transmission are still very much in the pipeline.

Fuel economy is rated at 10.4 litres/100km, but could go well over this figure if you flog it.

We gave the X240 a good workout on the motorway and over some deserted back roads.

It looks good and goes well enough, but like the utes, it’s main appeal is sure to be the price.

The four-wheel drive system is a traditional part-time system and cannot be engaged on dry bitumen.

The addition of low range gearing is a bonus, but with only 175mm of ground clearance, it’s off road exploits are going to be limited.

High range can be selected on the fly and it comes with a full-sized spare.

As well as leather and air, you get a power-operated driver’s seat, rear-parking sensors and an eight-speaker CD/MP3 sound system with a USB port.

Seventeen inch alloys are also fitted.

Colours available are white, black, silver and red, but anything except white adds $400 to the price.

The interior of the car will be finished in black unlike the vehicle pictured.

A sun roof is a $1000 option.

The X240 is backed by a three-year/100,000km warranty, with 24-hour road side assistance.

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