The great equaliser
Let's set the frame first. The 007 is a big, fast-looking rear-drive fastback, and it's the priciest thing Dongfeng sells here.
That frame matters, because this car has a job.
Sporty and sensible used to live at different price points in Singapore. You picked one and paid accordingly. The 007 puts both in the same body and charges economy money for it.
So judge it against the cars it undercuts and it looks like a bargain. Judge it against the cars at this price point and it looks like a cheat code.
Who is Dongfeng, anyway?
Fair question, because the badge is new here even if the company isn't. Dongfeng has been building cars since 1969, and it's one of China's biggest state-owned automakers. If you've ever sat in a Nissan, Honda or Peugeot made for the Chinese market, there's a decent chance Dongfeng built it. They've spent decades making other people's cars. The 007 is them having a go under their own name.
Locally the cars come through Volt Auto, the sole authorised distributor, and the lineup is three deep: the Box, the Vigo and this. The ownership story reads well too: a 10-year unlimited-mileage battery warranty, five years on the vehicle, and servicing covered to 10 years or 105,000 km. For a badge most people here haven't lived with yet, that counts for a lot.
We'll be putting that lineup claim to the test properly. The Vigo and the Box are both booked in after this car, so consider this review part one of three on Dongfeng in Singapore.
The screens are the best bit
The centre screen is huge at 15.6 inches, and more importantly, it's been organised by someone who has used a car before. The UI is logical. Nothing important is buried. Volume, aircon and the app drawer live in a bar at the bottom of the screen and never leave. Toyota does this well on the bZ4X, and it's just as right here.
The 8.8-inch driver display is snappy and shows exactly what you need. No complaints on either screen, which is rare at any price.
The sound system is a genuine flex: 19 speakers as standard, including speakers in the driver's headrest. Quality is good rather than great, but at this money it's among the best I've heard.
The driver aids are solid too. Adaptive cruise works well, and everything behaves the way you'd hope in traffic. My one gripe was the lane warning, which got naggy. The saving grace: switch it off and it stays off, drive after drive. Plenty of far pricier cars make you dig through menus every single morning. This one respects your decision.
It's a golden retriever of a car. You get in, it says: we go now, we go fast.
Now the catches. There's no native satnav, so navigation runs through your phone. And here's an odd one: the spec sheet lists Android Auto, but my car needed a third-party dongle in the USB port before it would talk to my phone. Wireless Apple CarPlay worked flawlessly, so iPhone owners can skip this paragraph. Android owners, ask about the dongle before you drive off.
Combat mode, and other silliness
Most cars give you Eco, Comfort and Sport. The 007 gives you those, then keeps going. Dig into the screen and you find Combat mode. The display turns red, and the word Fight appears in front of you.
It's ridiculous. It also works. The car goes from comfortably fast to properly fast, everything sharpens, and for a minute you're flying a fighter jet through Toa Payoh. I love that someone signed this off.
Same energy at the lights: put the car in auto hold and the headlights start a slow, dancing sweep. To the driver in front it must look faintly threatening. It serves no purpose beyond looking cool, and I respect that completely.
Where the money ran out
The cabin is a game of two textures. There's soft-touch where your hands actually go, the white two-tone steering wheel is genuinely lovely, and the physical buttons are laid out with real thought: media on the right spoke, aircon on the left.
Then you tap the dash. The design is doing a lot of work, but the hard plastics underneath run true. It looks more expensive than it feels.
Everything else in here punches up. The vegan leather seats are ventilated, the ambient lighting is configurable, the wireless charger just works, and the panoramic glass roof is humongous. The back seat is properly comfortable, and with a 452-litre boot that opens up to over 1,000 litres seats-down through the liftback, it swallows real life easily.
One small gripe, and I know it's small: the vanity mirrors are tiny and unlit. I don't know why I expected a light. I did.
Living with it in Singapore
Here's what the photos hide: this car is long. 4.88 metres long. It looks like a compact sporty thing and parks like a limo. Lots that are normally routine, HDB and CBD car parks especially, get a little more interesting. There's no auto parking to lean on either, though the 540-degree camera helps.
The glass roof had me braced for a greenhouse. It never happened. The aircon kept the cabin genuinely comfortable through proper afternoon heat, which in Singapore is not a footnote.
Efficiency is the quiet star of the week. Official consumption is 16.3 kWh/100 km. I averaged around 13. Run the maths on the 73.48 kWh battery and you're looking at well over 500 km of real range, and because it's LFP, you can charge to full without the usual 80% guilt. With 200 kW DC on tap, a top-up is never a drama.
Then there's the bill. At the time of writing, the Premium lands between $220,888 and $228,888 depending on your COE appetite, with prevailing promotions and COE included. Run that against anything else with this pace and this kit on sale here, and you'll see why the value score at the bottom of this page is a 9.
Which one should you buy?
Here's the unusual bit: picking a trim is mostly about picking a motor, because the kit barely changes. The ventilated seats, the 19 speakers, the big screens, the safety suite. All of it is standard on all three. Some brands make the base car a decoy to upsell you. Dongfeng hasn't, and after the smart #5's trim ladder, that's genuinely refreshing.
So the Prestige is the sleeper value pick. It's the Cat A car, it's around $25,000 cheaper than the Premium, and you give up nothing except pace. If you want the looks and the kit and 8.2 seconds to 100 doesn't bother you, that's a lot of car for the money.
But I'd have the Premium, and the car I drove is why. 272 hp and rear-wheel drive is the sweet spot where the 007 stops being a nice deal and starts being a fast one, and it's the version that earns the fastback body. The Performance exists, it's savage on paper with over 500 horsepower, and its consumption figure alone (21.4 kWh/100 km official, against the Premium's 16.3) tells you what kind of week you'd have with it.
Whichever you pick, you're not being punished for spending less. That's rarer than it should be.
The verdict
Some cars are appliances, and there's dignity in that. The 007 is a golden retriever. You get in and it says: we go now, we go fast.
It drives well, it's good to look at, it's a bit silly, and it won't break the bank. The rough edges are real. The plastics are plasticky and Android owners get dongled.
None of it dents the case. At this price you used to pick one strength and forgive the rest. The 007 doesn't ask you to choose.