From choir rehearsals and Heritage Weekend adventures to long lunches and late-night catch-ups, the refreshed Jetour X70 Plus became my companion for a very busy week in the Mother City.
There are road tests where you meticulously assess a car against a checklist. Then there are weeks where you simply live with one. My week with the refreshed Jetour X70 Plus was definitely the latter.
I arrived in Cape Town for Heritage Weekend with a diary that was already threatening to burst at the seams. The Johannesburg Queer Chorus was embarking on our maiden tour to the Cape, which meant rehearsals, performances, catching up with Cape Town friends and, naturally, making time for as many culinary adventures as the schedule would allow. Somewhere between all of that was a Jetour X70 Plus. And somewhere along the way, it stopped feeling like a test car and started feeling like my Cape Town companion.
Based in Green Point, my days became a colourful blur of driving across the city. There were rehearsals to get to, performances to prepare for and friends to see, with the occasional detour for something delicious. It was exactly the kind of week that puts a car through its real-world paces: parking in unfamiliar streets, navigating Cape Town traffic, carrying all the paraphernalia that comes with a performance weekend and spending plenty of time behind the wheel.
The refreshed X70 Plus arrived in South Africa in July 2026, with Jetour giving its seven-seater a subtle but meaningful makeover. The most obvious changes are the redesigned grille, brushed-aluminium detailing and new 19-inch alloy wheels. Underneath, the 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine has also been upgraded, now producing 125 kW and 270 Nm, paired with a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission.
But what caught my attention wasn’t a number on a specification sheet. It was the way the X70 Plus fitted into my life for the week.
Heading up the winding, steep inclines toward Constantia, the upgraded engine and dual-clutch transmission felt confident, never struggling under the weight of passengers and luggage. For an SUV of this size in heavy city rotation, it also managed a respectable 6.9 litres per 100km.
Room to breathe
Inside, the cabin feels considerably more premium than you might expect from an SUV sitting below the R500,000 mark. The refreshed range starts at R444,900 for the Prestige, while the Prime sits at R494,900.
There is plenty of space, too. This is a seven-seater after all, with a 2,720 mm wheelbase and 200 mm of ground clearance. Fold the rear seats down and luggage capacity expands to a substantial 1,680 litres. I didn’t need all seven seats during my Cape Town adventure, but I certainly appreciated the room. Because choir life comes with baggage. Literally.
Between clothes, rehearsal bits and pieces and everything else one somehow accumulates when travelling, having a spacious cabin meant I never felt like I was playing automotive Tetris every time I loaded the car. And after a long rehearsal, those comfortable seats became something of a sanctuary.
Cape Town, one bite at a time
Of course, no trip to Cape Town with me behind the wheel was ever going to be solely about driving. One afternoon found me heading towards District Six for lunch at East City Grill & Yakiniku, followed by an evening at Restaurant De Tafel in Wynberg. As if my itinerary hadn’t already made its priorities clear, I ended the trip with a leisurely lunch excursion to Chefs Warehouse Beau Constantia. Because apparently singing, sightseeing and socialising weren’t enough – there had to be food.
Those drives became some of my favourite moments of the week. Not because I was deliberately seeking out winding roads or trying to turn the journey into a motoring adventure, but because Cape Town has a way of making even an ordinary drive feel like part of the experience. One minute you’re in Green Point, the next you’re heading towards the city bowl, then through the southern suburbs and eventually climbing towards Constantia.
The X70 Plus simply got on with it.
The elevated driving position gives you a good view of the road and the cabin feels open rather than cramped. The technology is equally generous, with a dual 10.25-inch display arrangement, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, wireless charging and a host of driver-assistance features. The refreshed model also adds safety technology including blind-spot monitoring and a 540-degree panoramic camera system.
That camera system, in particular, became a lifesaver. When trying to squeeze the rather substantial X70 Plus into a notoriously tight District Six parking bay, it transformed a stressful manoeuvre into a breeze. It’s one of those features you wonder how you ever lived without.
The refreshed chapter
This update is interesting because Jetour hasn’t tried to reinvent the X70 Plus. Instead, the company has concentrated on refining an established formula. The facelift brings a more sophisticated exterior, more technology and comfort features and a new powertrain. Jetour says the move from 115 kW and 230 Nm to 125 kW and 270 Nm, together with the seven-speed DCT, is intended to deliver stronger performance and improved efficiency.
The X70 Plus has always had presence, but the refreshed version feels a little more grown-up. The new grille and 19-inch wheels give it a more polished character, while the cabin retains that slightly unexpected feeling of getting rather a lot of car for your money. Which, in a city where parking sometimes feels like a competitive sport, is no small achievement.
More than a road test
By the end of my week, I realised I hadn’t really thought about the Jetour in terms of a traditional road test. I’d thought about it as the car that took me to choir rehearsals. The car I climbed into after a performance. The car that carried me across Cape Town to see friends. The car that patiently waited while I lingered over lunch. And the car that took me up towards Beau Constantia for one final culinary indulgence before heading back home.
That, for me, is where a good road test really begins. Not with a specification sheet, but with the question: what was it like to live with?
For a week filled with music, friendship, food and the beautiful chaos of a Cape Town Heritage Weekend, the refreshed Jetour X70 Plus fitted rather comfortably into my rhythm. And perhaps that’s the biggest compliment I can give it. By the time the keys went back, it no longer felt like I had spent a week testing a car.
It felt like I’d spent a week with a very capable travel companion. And much like the choir tour itself, I wasn’t quite ready for the journey to end.