Want 160.8kw and 312nm in your GWM Hover 2.4?

My wife has been the proud owner of a GWM hover 2.4 4x4 since May 2008. I am more of a Honda / Audi petrol head.

(If you want to know about the 160KW, be patient, I have to first bore you with some details to help you decide why a Hover and to tell you about my skeptical but surprised experience.)

I was surprised by the Hover's build quality after she brought it home. I was very skeptical about reliability but kept the opinion to myself... "she rules the house".

The first thing she did with the cheque book was to write a cheque to Steve’s Auto Clinic for R13000. They ported the head, fitted a unichip and a free flow. On the 4x4 the power to the wheels was increased from 60Kw to 76.5Kw and the torque was up from 142NM to 166NM. On the open road the fuel cons. increased from 8.5Km/l to 9.7Km/l (with the wind from behind 11Km/l tested from Nelspruit to Jeffereysbay and back). In town I get 8 to 9KM/l and my wife 7 to 8Km/l. She's the one with the cheque book and boy does she race around town to spend it...

The power as it is now even satisfies myself. It goes well on up hills with minimum gear change. 4x4 routes are now also a bliss as the engine produces more torque at 1000rpm on the wheels than it did as a whole before the conversion. The 60KW on the wheels was produced at 5200rpm before the conversion and after the conversion the 60KW is already made at 3700rpm on the wheels. I personally think she spend the R13000 well.

Back to reliability... Well after two years has passed the Audi A4 (165000Km) has left me 3 times next to the road and the Honda Accord 2.4 (55000Km)once... Yes the Honda had to be towed in. The problem was that my wife was driving the Honda to Pretoria when it stood next to the road. Honda Accords has the tendency to drop the petrol pump into the fuel tank when you hit a pothole and my wife being used to the Hover do not swerve for potholes... My point being that out of all of my vehicles the GWM Hover (33000Km) is the only vehicle which has not let us down once and we even use it for 4x4 courses and obstacles thus it is subject to way more punishment then the other two vehicles, which get treated as daddy's babies...

One outstanding and unexpected surprise was the quality of the paint on the GWM. It still shines as new after two years and hardly scratches when you go bundu bashing on 4x4 courses. I would rate the paint higher than the Honda and Audi. If one of those bushes would go near the Honda or Audi, the cheque book would have had to come out.

One of your readers complained about parts for the Hover. Well this was my experience. My wife works at SAPPI Ngodwana and has to Drive 50KM to work and the 50KM back. She prefers driving the Kaapsehoop road because of the scenery. The problem with this road is that it is a very steep uphill mountain pass for 25KM and then down for 25Km. Thus you sit for 50KM per day on the brakes. So the brakes only lasted 25000Km on the heavy 1.8ton Hover with four people in. I set off to find brake pads from Autozone, Nsp Brake & Clutch, Nsp Brake, Midas, etc... but could not find any. Having known from experience to avoid dealers for things like brake pads as they are expensive ( Honda front Brake pads R1700.00 "ouch"), I was forced to go to GWM Nelspruit to ask for a quote. They had stock of the part and the quote R800.00 "Eight hundred rand" fitted. The pads price was R426.00. I asked them to please fit it and they did the following for the R800. They fitted the brake pads, set the handbrake, lifted up the front suspension to the allowed limit by GWM (20mm higher - lekker for 4x4 routes) and checked all of the tires for strange objects that could cause punctures in future. Well no complaints from my side as I have never received such value for money in service before from any of my vehicles that I have driven ever, and I mean "never ever".

To get to the topic 160KW on a Hover... I took my vehicle to GWM for a service and spoke to the Workshop Supervisor. He told me about two Hover Limo vehicles that were fitted with superchargers and that they performed like clappers. I by now being very pro Hover started surfing the web to find out who would do this conversion in SA. It took a while to get to Alpine's site and I contacted them. They gave me a quote that was reasonable (R35500 fitted) and send me a PDF pamphlet of their tests and dyno runs. I am still in the process of convincing the Wife she does not need a new lounge suite but rather a supercharger on the Hover. The specs are incredible, the supercharger kit comes complete with all of the fittings and installation manual. You even get a kit for the 4G64 or 4G69 version Hover. There are also kits available for the Steed 2.4 bakkie.

The specs 160.8KW @ 5518rpm and 312nm @ 2521rpm. Can the vehicle take it?? Yes it can because the Hover is based upon an Isuzu Axiom that was sold in the USA with a 3.5L V6 producing almost 200kw so the drivetrain can take it as well as the brakes and chassis. Now don't come with your steel measurement theory. If you wash your own vehicles you know when body panels are made of thick or thin metal and when you push a vehicle out of mud on a 4x4 route you know when the panels are stong or not. I have inspected the vehicles chassy many a Sunday afternoon and can tell you of numerous potholes that my wife has encountered and yet no damage what so ever. This vehicle is as solid as they come. O yes, no rust to date.

If I cannot convince the wife a bout the conversion, then it is time to trade the Audi A4 in for a brand new Supercharged GWM Hover 4x4 @ R214000 + R35500 = R249500 160Kw 4x4 Monster "hoo-ha"...

O yes, Stuff the "guarantee" even Honda fails when it comes to claiming... Pothole Petrol pump saga....

Andy's reply Wonderful post, thank you so much for sharing. I too got rid of a late model Audi A4 when deciding on the Hover!!