GWM Cannon Ultra long term review

Five years ago, Chinese brand GWM entered Australia’s hot ute market with the Cannon, its challenger for the popular Ford Ranger and Toyota Hilux. 

Chasing Cars previously ran an early Cannon-X 2.0-litre turbo-diesel for six months and 10,000km. At the end of that, we declared it “a great first effort”, but one that needed some serious improvement. 

So what has changed in three years? Well, there’s a new engine, refinements to a whole selection of parts and changes inside, but is it enough?

To see if those tweaks have improved the Cannon experience, we’re spending three months and 5000km in the top-spec Ultra. 

Ahead of it is a camping trip, house move, and plenty of long daily commutes, and at the end of that we’ll know if the Cannon is actually any good at being a ute.

Month 1: Getting to know you

• Odometer start: 5308km 
• Kilometres this month: 1650km 
• Cost this month: $424.87 (fuel)

What is it?

The Cannon is GWM’s entry point to the ute range and now comes in single-cab chassis guise, though the bulk of the line-up is dual-cab pick-up as at launch. 

It now comes with a 2.4L turbo-diesel power plant producing 135kW and 480Nm driving all four wheels via GWM’s nine-speed automatic transmission. 

There are five variants of Cannon on offer, with further choice in the larger, more expensive Cannon Alpha we’ll take a look at next. 

How much is it?

This Cannon Ultra costs $42,490, driveaway, for ABN holders. White is the only free-of-charge paint colour and the pictured Pittsburgh Silver paint adds $595.

This makes it one of the most affordable four-wheel drive dual-cab utes on the market. Competing alongside the JAC T9 which costs $46,386, the LDV T60 Max Pro at $36,990 (ABN holders) and the KGM Musso starting at $42,500. 

What’s the spec of our car?

The Ultra we are in sits in the middle of the range, with Premium and Lux below plus special versions including the blacked-out Vanta and off-road focused XSR above. 

Standard feature highlights of the Ultra include: 

• 18-inch alloy wheels 
• Leather accented seats 
• 12.3-inch infotainment screen 
• 360-degree camera 
• 3500kg braked towing capacity 
• Front seat heating 
• Wireless phone charging. 
• Sports bar 
• Five-star ANCAP rating 
• Rear differential lock 
• Sunroof 

How long is it sticking around for?

We’ll be hanging onto the GWM Cannon Ultra keys for three months, and aiming to cover 5000km commuting from the Blue Mountains to Sydney, as well as testing off-road and on rural roads. 

Then it’s back into another GWM, though the larger Cannon Alpha with its fresher petrol-electric plug-in hybrid powertrain. 

Fuel economy 

The ‘little’ 2.4L turbo diesel (I guess that’s not so little these days) is rated to drink diesel at 8.4L/100km. So far, I’ve been able to better than figure, returning an average of 8.1L/100km. 

This is an encouraging figure as, while not class leading (the Triton’s twin-turbo is very efficient) it’s still a frugal ute. With the 78-litre fuel tank, the Cannon should theoretically be able to travel nearly 1000km between fill-ups. 

For context, the 4×4 aftermarket industry does have long-range fuel tanks available, which offer increased fuel capacity. A cursory glance found options ranging in capacity from 120L–140L — a significant increase for long-distance tourers. 

Warranty and servicing 

The GWM Cannon Ultra is covered by a seven-year unlimited kilometre warranty. Five-year roadside assist is also included as part of the purchase package. Capped-priced servicing costs $2530 for the first five years.

Initial performance 

The interior is pretty plush and there’s lots of technology — certainly for the price. Compared to something like a basic Nissan Navara SL this thing feels like a spaceship inside… for better and worse. 

My main gripes so far have come from how the Cannon drives, in three years since our last long-term GWM ute it doesn’t seem like the brand has made leaps and bounds in the suspension department. 

Not only is the GWM too soft in suspension, it lacks travel, too, and this is just when driving on Sydney roads. The standard tyres aren’t great either. Tellingly, GWM has recently employed suspension whiz Rob Trubiani to overhaul its local range’s ride and handling. 

After some more kilometres next month, we’ll take a deep dive into what exactly could do with improvement, and how that might shake out in aftermarket parts.