GWM Cannon 2025 review - Australian first drive

GWM’s pricing for the Cannon was already pretty sharp, and when it took the axe to its price list late last year, the most basic Cannon became a $35,490 drive-away proposition. An obvious move to clear stock that would soon have the wrong year on its build-plate, the policy sure created some interest in the Cannon range as a whole.

Value for money is a major selling point with a vehicle like this, so how does the upgraded Cannon stand up? Pretty darn well, actually, and with a starting price of $40,490 you can forget about a stripped out specification or, indeed, having to pay more for a dual-cab layout or all-wheel drive.

Inside, you’ll find single-zone climate-control (with rear outlets), a wireless phone charger, power windows, the new 12.3 inch touchscreen, digital radio, voice command and artificial leather trim (seats and steering wheel), Apple CarPlay and Android Auto (which paired with my often recalcitrant phone seamlessly).

2025 GWM Cannon Ultra and XSR

Eighteen-inch alloy wheels are standard, along with a chrome sports bar, auto LED headlights, auto high-beam, LED indicators and tail-lights, roof rails, power-folding exterior mirrors, side steps, damped tailgate, keyless entry and a spray-in bedliner.

The Ultra – and the version we’ve actually driven here - is next at $43,490 and adds leather-accented seats which are also heated and ventilated, a heated steering wheel, auto power windows, a six-way electrically adjustable driver’s seat (four-way for the passenger) ambient interior lighting and a light in the front footwells. Tinted rear windows are another Ultra addition, as is a tailgate step and, crucially, an electric sunroof.

Next step up is the Vanta at $45,490 which is fundamentally an Ultra with extra black bits. It’s identified by blacked-out alloy wheels, as well as a black sports bar, black side steps, and matt black wheel arches, exterior mirrors and door handles.

GWM tells us that the Ultra and Vanta are likely to be the big volume sellers.

The flagship Cannon is the XSR and $49,990 buys you a different grille, snorkel, stronger side-steps better able to tackle rocky tracks, and body-coloured mirrors and door handles. But a fair bit of the extra asking price goes towards an alternative driveline which we’ll cover in the under the bonnet section.

What’s missing? The lack of dual-zone air-con on any of the upper-spec models seems a bit strange, and a head-up display would be welcome.

Having twin screens of the same size in the cabin makes for a techy look, but in reality, the centre screen is less than perfect. That’s because it’s clearly made for a left-hand-drive car and some of the menu items are w-a-y over to the left, out of reach for a driver of normal stature. The script is also pretty small in places, and those who wear reading glasses might find it all a bit indecipherable, especially on the move.

That Top-Gun T-bar shifter is also a bit confusing at first thanks to the Park button placement, but it’s also a bit baffling when you can’t work out how to select gears manually even though you’ve shifted into M (Manual) mode. There just doesn’t seem to be any way to get the shifter to, er, shift. And that’s because it doesn’t. Instead, you use the shifter to select Manual mode and then use the paddle shifters on the steering wheel to actually change the gears.

2025 GWM Cannon Ultra

The front centre console is home to a single USB-A and USB-C charging port as well as a 12-volt outlet, and there are plenty of storage cubbies around the cabin. The interior plastics on the Ultra, meanwhile, actually feel better than they look. The door cappings, especially, look a bit hard and brittle but are actually quite compliant to the touch. Our other observation would be that the standard sunroof opening is actually quite small and there seems to be lots of buffeting from it at speed.

The rear seat is better than some dual-cabs by having a more rational back-rest angle, and there’s lots of foot-room under the front chairs. There’s also plenty of head-room in the back, mainly because the roof lining dips up at the point the sunroof stops (perhaps explaining the small sunroof opening). Rear seat passengers will also appreciate the pair of charging ports, central air vents and the fold-down armrest.

The tray of the Cannon is competitively sized (and, crucially, will accept a standard pallet between the wheel arches) but the spray-on bedliner looks a bit half-finished at its edges; almost as if the masking process before spraying was rushed. Still, the sprayed-on surface itself is grippy and feels like it would be fairly durable. Our biggest complain would be a lack of tie-down points. There are two up front which are too high to be really useful, and two in the rear corners. The problem there is that heavy loads which need the lower tie-downs would ideally be placed farther forward in the tray, not right at the back.

There’s some nice thinking with the damped tailgate, though, and the bonnet also lifts on gas struts which is a bit of a novelty on this type of vehicle. The fold-out tailgate step is another neat touch and is easy to use, even if it’s still a decent step up to get a foot squarely on it. And the sports bar? About as useful as anybody else’s version of the same thing. Which is to say, not very.

The new, bigger engine has enabled GWM to bump the Cannon’s towing maximum to a competitive 3500kg with a braked trailer. All variants apart form the XSR also have a 995kg payload which is also among the better figures in this class of vehicle.

On the road, it doesn’t take long to appreciate the benefits of the new, torquier engine. Although there’s a little diesel clatter at idle and a slightly gruff soundtrack beyond that, it all soon smooths out above about 1200rpm. From there, it’s quite a rush as the engine is clearly tuned for bottom-end torque rather than top-end rush and, in this type of vehicle, that makes perfect sense.

If anything, the nine-speed transmission seems a little hesitant to set sail until there’s some boost for the taking, and this can feel a bit weird when you’re trying to merge into freeway traffic or jump into a space in traffic. The gearbox also reveals itself to be a bit too keen to hold on to the current gear when your throttle position and speed suggest a shift up would be logical. That said, when it does upshift, the shift quality is extremely good with a crispness that means the multiple gears never seem an overwhelming number.

2025 GWM Cannon Ultra

The ride only starts to get rowdy on faster, really bumpy sections where the leaf-spring rear axle starts to run out of reaction time, but below that threshold, the Cannon rides remarkably sanely and corners relatively flatly into the bargain.

Our main gripe is with the steering, but only in terms of the driver-assistance dumbing down of the whole experience. With the lane-keeping assistance switched off, the steering reveals itself to be fairly neutral with a slight dead-spot at the straight-ahead (normal enough for off-road vehicles). But with lane-keeping active, the Cannon’s constant corrections and nudging at the tiller will drive you mad. It’s too sensitive, too aggressive and too insistent, and we suspect GWM knows it.

2025 GWM Cannon Ultra

Certainly, the brand professes to be constantly refining these assistance packages but it’s also fair to say that some carmakers simply have a better grasp of this tech.

Off road, the Cannon is a pretty sure bet to take you anywhere 99 per cent of the population will want to go 99 per cent of the time. The limiting factor here will be the tyres, and with a pretty non-aggressive tread pattern on the standard hoops, the first thing most adventurous owners will do will be to fit a set of All Terrains and tick that box for that last one per cent of ability.

2025 GWM Cannon Ultra

The Cannon ute comes with GWM’s standard factory warranty of seven years/unlimited kilometres. That’s not quite industry-leading any longer, but it’s still a heck of a lot of peace of mind. You also get five years of roadside assistance that applies anywhere in Australia.

GWM also offers capped-price servicing for the first five years with major and minor services included. There’s no word on the cost of that yet, but GWM told CarsGuide that the price would not be dramatically different from the previous model’s capped-price scheduled maintenance. That suggests somewhere around the $360 per service mark.

There’s a first service due at six months or 5000km, and then regular services every 12 months or 10,000km after that.