When Great Wall Motors first brought in the H9 a decade ago, it did so with ambitions of challenging the mighty Toyota Land Cruiser Prado—with a sleek, well-spec’d, turbocharged gasoline-powered 4x4. While it did offer a lot for less money than the Prado, it wasn’t that much cheaper, and few buyers were willing to take a gamble on an unknown SUV stickering for P3 million.
This all-new second generation car, on the other hand, goes the opposite direction. Sticking to the tried and true ladder frame diesel SUV formula, clad in gorgeously retro-styled sheet metal, this all-new H9 offers Land Cruiser-level style and comfort for Fortuner pricing.
But does it deliver?
Yes, yes it does. Let’s see how.
Watch: 2026 GWM Haval H9 review
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Styling
The H9’s aggressively retro looks borrow heavily from classic 80’s off-roaders like the Ford Bronco and the Toyota Prado. While GWM claims some off-roader heritage courtesy of the Changcheng 513 SUV it released back in the ’80s, the H9 looks nothing like it. Instead, the strong shoulders and distinctive front end are more reminiscent of the Nissan Patrol. Completely fitting. As many early Great Wall designs were indeed based on Nissan cars!
That front grille is a beaut, functional looking with torx bolts dressing up the plastic, making it look like a metal multi-piece grille. No clumsily blanked off panels here, just purely functional air intake framed by big, expressive halo-ringed projector headlights paired with tiny jewel-like front foglights. There’s a confident step-down from the clamshell hood down to the squared-off front fenders, and a broad shoulder-line that continues down to the end of the car, where it frames the paired rear taillights.
The fenders flare out even further from there, giving a nice pinched definition to the flanks and creating a very aggressive, very square stance. Funnily enough, despite the huge amount of body work, the 18-inch two-tone alloy wheels feel right at home here. This looks and feels like a real off-roader. At 4,950mm x 1,976mm x 1,930mm, the H9 is about as big as the Land Cruiser Prado! It is so wide, in fact, that the side mirrors had to be shrunk to ensure they’d fit within a proper traffic lane. Despite this, the rear end feels strangely chopped off, with very little bodywork extending behind the rear axle.
The detailing at the rear is busy, with an asymmetric side-opening rear hatch and an off-center license plate mount to clear the hidden rear tow point. There’s a faux spare tire carrier on the rear door that serves as external rear storage, while the actual spare sits under the bumper. The rear light clusters and bumper feature a coarse finish that is probably meant to be hard-wearing,but feels like glittery sandpaper. Pretty to look at, yes, but I wonder how durable it is. I love the Land Rover-ish lights themselves, and the rear foglights on the corners of the bumper are quite bright and work well in dark and foggy conditions.
Interior
The H9’s interior features a lot of familiar bits from the Cannon—particularly the steering wheel and shifter—while still carving out its own path. The dashboard is clean and upright, dominated by a 14.6-inch center touchscreen that sits above the A/C vents and controls. It is just about large enough to poke up into your line of sight if you’re a shorter driver, though I didn’t find it that distracting.
The instrument display in front of the driver is nice and big, and doesn’t have any fake stencil area around it as in the Cannon, making it feel much more upmarket. The display iconography and design are also much classier, as well. Like the Cannon, you get some utility shelving on the dashboard, but with more soft touch material around it. The mountain badge on the dash is a nice touch—one echoed on the windshield, tucked away in the lower lefthand corner.
The front seats are big and plush, with power lumbar adjustment—always a nice touch. While the thrones are nice and soft, with deep buckets, they could do with better thigh support or at least more rake adjustment, for those long stints in city traffic. Otherwise, there’s an awesome amount of space around you. Not quite Nissan Patrol level, but sitting somewhere between that and the current PPV standard.
The center console is near identical to the Cannon’s, down to the cooled console box. The extra cabin space allows for a small cutout pocket by the driver’s knee, where the USB-C and A ports and the 12V power point are tucked away out of sight. These allow you to plug in phones or dashcams, keeping the cables tucked away and out of sight. Where those power points used to be sits a dual cellphone tray, with one side serving as a 50W charging pad.
The second row is incredibly spacious, though the seats themselves are not as impressive—oddly—as the rear bench in the Cannon. The hinge-point for the backrests are high on your back, similar to the Montero Sport, which may or may not irritate you, depending on your height and build. The side buckets aren’t as deeply carved, and the bench is a bit flatter, which allows for more natural three-across seating. There’s a center armrest that features pop-out cupholders, and A/C controls for not just two but EIGHT rear vents! There are four overhead vents for the two rear rows, console mounted vents for the second row, and foot level vents coming out from under the front seats. Enough to please most any passenger back there.
The third row is...functional. There’s literally no knee room for adults with the second row slid all the way back, and we had to slide that second row all the way forward to make it feel anywhere near spacious—at which point there’s very little room in the second row. Set at a happy medium, the second row is still as spacious as in smaller PPVs, while the third row is borderline liveable for short trips. The ultra-thin seatbacks are hard, with the fold down headrest digging into your back. Flip up the headrest, and it leaves a large empty space that is less uncomfortable but still irritating. Most owners will likely leave these seats folded down for the luggage space.
Third row folded, you get a large and semi-flat loading floor that’s only slightly slanted upwards. There are plastic pull handles that click into the seat backs, but which merely snap down rather than retract automatically. The tailgate opens horizontally—no power tailgate here, as the action is smooth and light enough for smaller adults to open with ease. There’s a hydraulic strut with a locking ring that keeps it open if you’re parked on a slope, to ease loading.
Unfortunately, the H9’s loading floor is very, very high up. You will find yourself leaning over the large bumper quite often to reach for items near the front of the bay. Hopefully, for the next facelift, GWM adds a cutout step or at least a rubber liner on top of the bumper to prevent scuffs and scratches while loading. There’s a tiny underfloor pocket behind the rear seats for emergency items, as well as storage on the inside of the tailgate. The false spare tire cover provides even more emergency storage, while the spare itself sits underneath that extra long rear bumper.
Engine performance
With the same 2.4-liter diesel and nine-speed automatic as the Cannon, the Haval H9’s performance is acceptable rather than stellar. The extra weight and frontal area limit 0-100kph acceleration to around 11.2 seconds. The gearing and throttle response feels a bit more aggressive here than in the Cannon—possibly to make up for the extra weight—but over 60kph, acceleration slacks off noticeably. Try to boot it for a quick overtake and the turbo lag from the overworked 2.4 reminds you that this isn’t a twin-turbo V6 or a battery-backed hybrid. It’s not exactly slow, but it has to work harder than most to not feel it.
Driven how it’s meant to be driven—ergo, slow and stately—the H9 does fine. Refinement is excellent and the diesel burble is unobtrusive. At a steady 80kph we saw around 16km/L, and not much more than that. In mixed drivng over the week, we saw around 8-9km/L. Yes, that extra space does cost you extra at the pumps, but it’s not far off smaller competitors!
Ride and handling
To drive, the H9 has few surprises. It maintains a little better body control in the corners than you expect given the softness of the suspension, but it is still soft. There’s little danger of tipping it over or pushing it hard enough to break the tires loose—to play a game of chasing the fishes’ tail down the road—not with the competent 4WD system and extra wide and compliant 265/60 R18 GitiXross HT71 tires.
The tires are mostly quiet and relatively grippy—better than your typical sari-sari store HT tires, and surprisingly good for Giti tires. There are various driving modes, as on the Cannon, but none of them elevate the steering and handling beyond ‘acceptable.’ There are also a lot of off-road modes—perhaps a few more than the Cannon—but we didn’t have occasion to test these. Not that we doubt that this could do the regular haciendero farm road slog with ease.
For what it is, the H9 is a very good drive. Very little outside noise gets in, and aside from the odd square edged pothole or rut, little disturbs the peace inside the cabin. On long road trips, our perpetually car-sick youngest child actually fell asleep regularly. And quickly. Up in front, I needed a constant supply of caffeine to stay up myself. As this is a relaxing car to drive on the highway, and even more relaxing in traffic.
In the city, the tall hood and large size make it difficult to play the eternal game of snake that is Manila traffic—but not to the extent that you’d think. Maybe I’ve gotten used to the size of trucks like the Everest—which is only a hair narrower—or maybe all that big glass is good for something. One area where the H9 really lacks is those small side mirrors, which look even smaller from the inside. You can use the 360-degree-view camera for corner spotting and to see under your front bumper, and the H9’s electric power steering and decent turning circle make it easier to park than you’d think.
Extra features
Unfortunately, the H9, being a Lux variant, doesn’t have the full driver assists suite the Cannon S-Lux variant does. No lane keeping assist or adaptive cruise control, just regular cruise control. You do have keyless entry and ignition, and courtesy lights to help you navigate that big step up at night.
There’s also a rather kick-ass eight-speaker sound system attached to a 14.6-inch infotainment screen that features Android Auto, Apple CarPlay and USB music and video. That system’s party piece is a voice assistant—similar to what you get on BYD or Denza—that allows you to set various vehicle functions. It’s sensitive and quick, interpreting commands to set the A/C to a specific temperature or the radio to a specific station quickly and accurately. It’s a shame it can’t execute commands inside Android Auto. Hopefully, GWM will add more integrated functions in the future.
Verdict
Overall, the H9 is big value for money. Literally. Prado-level value for a price that undercuts many ‘luxury edition’ Thai-made SUVs. Loaded with many of the modern conveniences but maintaining an old school SUV charm that many new SUVs lack.
For those looking to save money on a full-sized luxury SUV, the H9 hits almost all the right notes. Almost. The powertrain lacks that last little bit of power and polish, and an S Lux variant with higher levels of luxury and automation sure wouldn’t hurt. But this is coming in at the right price, and there’s still plenty of room for the nameplate to grow into if GWM decides to bring in further iterations of the model.
SPECS: 2026 GWM Haval H9 Lux 4x4 9AT
Price: P1,998,888
Engine: 2.4-liter turbodiesel
Power: 183hp @ 3,600rpm
Torque: 480Nm @ 1,500-2,500rpm
Layout: 4WD
Seating: 5
Score: 8.5/10
More photos of the GWM Haval H9 2026 Lux 4x4 9AT:
