{"id":852,"date":"2025-11-03T09:02:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T09:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in4ride.com\/?p=852"},"modified":"2025-11-25T09:13:56","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T09:13:56","slug":"gwm-new-kid-shakes-up-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in4ride.com\/?p=852","title":{"rendered":"GWM: NEW KID SHAKES UP TOWN"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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Great Wall Motors<\/strong> arrived into Mzansi<\/strong> at a time when there was some political upheaval<\/strong>. A new leader was poised<\/strong> to take over government<\/strong> and the winds of change were blowing left right and middle. It was a time of great opportunity<\/strong>, and the Chinese automotive<\/strong> brand seized the moment with both hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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That early period was admittedly<\/strong> challenging for any new brand coming into the country<\/strong>, what with the market leaders keeping a strong chokehold<\/strong> on whatever managed to enter. Chinese brands were bottom of the trust heap, no thanks to some rather disappointing<\/strong> offerings by manufacturers looking for a quick buck<\/strong> through inferior<\/strong> products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So GWM<\/strong> \u2013 as Great Wall Motors eventually abbreviated<\/strong> itself – putting their foot in the water during this moment was at a great reputational<\/strong> risk. An exit would have been undesirable. The company decided to stick around, with a plan to set up a small national footprint<\/strong> of compact dealerships<\/strong> in specific areas where the market would be receptive of their products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Early products like the H1<\/strong>, and Florid<\/strong> and were launched as value propositions<\/strong>, challenging the market leaders in the pocket, rather than in reputation<\/strong> and brand prestige. A slow uptake saw buyers warming<\/strong> up to some of the products. As media, we remarked about how good they were compared to their compatriots\u2019<\/strong>, with attractive<\/strong>, quirky designs, willing powertrains<\/strong> and features some rivals charged extra bucks for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The turning point arguably came with GWM\u2019s Haval brand, which was launched<\/strong> as a direct rival<\/strong> to sub-premium<\/strong> offerings from German and Japanese companies. Haval presented fresh new products<\/strong> with interesting tech. But of course value for money<\/strong> was always top of mind for consumers, and Haval came to the table with plenty to give them. Cars like the H2 revolutionised<\/strong> how South Africans<\/strong> viewed not only GWM brand, but cars of Chinese origin<\/strong> as a whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For the first time, consumers were exposed to features<\/strong> that were previously reserved for bigger<\/strong>, more expensive<\/strong> cars from established<\/strong> brands, with prices that impressed<\/strong> even more. Perhaps what really impressed the market was that people could buy brand new cars packed with features<\/strong>, for less, and be able to replace them at a quicker rate<\/strong> because of that. GWM had arrived into the Mzansi market and disrupted<\/strong> everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Great Wall Motors arrived into Mzansi at a time when there was some political upheaval. A new leader was poised…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":855,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_regular_price":[],"currency_symbol":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[365,364,80],"tags":[79,366,367],"class_list":["post-852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gwm","category-haval","category-news","tag-gwm","tag-gwm-haval","tag-haval"],"post_slider_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":["https:\/\/in4ride.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Haval-H1-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"post_slider_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/in4ride.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Haval-H1-1200x800.jpg",1200,800,true],"post_slider_layout_portrait_large":["https:\/\/in4ride.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Haval-H1-1200x1641.jpg",1200,1641,true],"post_slider_layout_square_large":["https:\/\/in4ride.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Haval-H1-1200x1200.jpg",1200,1200,true],"post_slider_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/in4ride.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Haval-H1-600x400.jpg",600,400,true],"post_slider_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/in4ride.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Haval-H1-600x900.jpg",600,900,true],"post_slider_layout_square":["https:\/\/in4ride.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Haval-H1-600x600.jpg",600,600,true],"full":["https:\/\/in4ride.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Haval-H1.jpg",1920,1641,false]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in4ride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in4ride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in4ride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in4ride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in4ride.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=852"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/in4ride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":856,"href":"https:\/\/in4ride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852\/revisions\/856"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in4ride.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in4ride.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in4ride.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in4ride.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}