Well, these are two pretty similar cars we have here! It's only details that could potentially make the difference. Considering they both belong to the small family car segment and utilize the same 5-door hatchback body style and the front wheel drive system, it all comes up to the specific petrol engine choice they offer. The first one has a Chevrolet-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 93hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 118hp engine designed by Chery.

Unfortunatelly, neither of the two vehicles was submitted to the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) testing. This makes it virtually impossible for me to pick one over the other and I'm generally against buying such cars as the safety should really always come first. Moving further on, let's take a closer look at some additional safety-related facts. Both vehicles belong to the small family car segment, which is generally classifying them somewhere in the middle safety-wise, but it doesn't do much to help us decide between the two. On the other hand, when it comes to weight, a factor that most people underestimate, the Chinese car offers a considerable difference of 18% more metal.

I don't like generalizing things when it comes to reliability, although it does seem that Chevrolet does have a slight advantage, all the models observed together. That's the official data, while our visitors describe reliability of Chevrolet with an average rating of 4.2, and models under the Chery badge with 4.6 out of 5. Some independent research have also placed Lacetti as average reliability-wise, and Tengo is more or less at the same level.Above it all, drivers of cars with the same engine as the American car rank it on average as 4.0, while the one under the competitor's bonnet gets 4.8 out of 5.

Chery is undoubtly more agile, reaching 100km/h in 1.1 seconds less than its competitor. In addition to that it accelerates all the way to 190 kilometers per hour, 15km/h more than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy the winner has to be the American car, averaging around 7.1 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (40 mpg), in combined cycle. We can't ignore that 15% difference compared to the Chinese car.

Chery appears just a bit more reliable, although the difference is truly marginal. The most important thing when deciding between any two vehicles should always be safety, both passive and active. In my opinion, everything taken into account, the Chinese car offers significantly better overall protection, taking the lead here. It all continues in the same direction, with Chery being considerably quicker, thus putting more smile on driver's face. It does come at a cost though, and that's the fuel consumption... At the end, as much as I'd like to give you a winner here, it's simply a pure tie if you ask me. In any case that's my personal view, built upon all the data available to me. What should decide here though is the way you feel about the two vehicles, and I hope you'll find my guidelines useful in the process. Also, you could use the oportunity to find out which car, everything taken into account, would be the perfect choice for you in the eyes of the virtual adviser™, among thousands of similar, yet so different vehicles.