Chinese Cars in Lebanon

LifeEngineer

Hey,
Been a very long time I didn't post in here so here goes nothing.

For some weird reason, I've been recently very interested in Chinese cars in Lebanon since I want to change my car.
I'm looking for a compact SUV for my kinda small/average family.
At first I checked the EV options (like BYD Atto 2) and while they are amazing I discarded them for practical reasons.

Now I'm looking into subcompact to compact fuel SUVs in Lebanon; my real budget being more like 20k$ (i know that's too little for a brand new car) but I can stretch it to 30k$ if I get a loan or something. I'll see what I can do).

Anyways here are the options I've seen till now (mostly online; not sure all of them are offered in here):

-Chery tiggo 4 pro
-Chery tiggo 7 pro
-GAC GS3 emzoom
-JAC JS2 pro
-JAC JS3
-Changan CS35 plus
-Changan CS55 plus
-Jetour X50
-Geely coolray
-MG ZS
-MG HS
-Haval jolion/H6
-BAIC X55
-DFSK fengon Glory 500
-KAIYI X3 pro

Does anyone here own any of these? Does anyone here own a chinese car? or knows someone who does own any of these?
Am I stupid for considering these? The features they offer are awesome for the price!

Cheers!

ReadMe

Most of them have issues with transmissions, hence why they are often dry DCT due to complexity in making a reliable torque converter/AT, not sure how good that is on a mostly hilly country.

LifeEngineer

ReadMe most of the new models are equipped with a wet DCT or a CVT. They no longer use the dry DCT.

scorz

If you don't want to go the Chinese road, I think in your pay range maybe you can get the vitara new?

I was looking at a new car in 2024 and I remember it was in the 30k range for the base petrol model (automatic transmission) - The 4 door jimny was another option but its payload was horrible. - but I ended up buying a used 2010 toyota prado - which fit my "kerech" way better.

Non-suv option: In the same range, I really loved the mazda 2, but I didn't fit well in it. The mazda 3 is nicer but I didn't want an electronic parking brake.

Good luck!