2025 JAC T9 review

It's not just electric SUVs in this wave of new brands coming to the Australian market.

That other hugely popular segment in Australia – four-wheel-drive utes – has another entrant. From China is JAC – a brand some might remember as having a brief foray in the light truck market some years ago – and it brings the T9 to the market.

It's a ute with value at the core of its appeal, lining up against the likes of the KGM SsangYong Musso, LDV T60, GWM Cannon Ute and Mitsubishi Triton. Is it worthy of consideration in this competitive part of such a popular segment? Let's take a closer look.

Before we get into the review, I need to provide some context around our testing. After driving an example of the T9 in late 2024 and suffering a mechanical failure when off-road, Drive was informed after the fact that the test vehicle was a pre-production example and not indicative of what buyers would be looking at on showroom floors.

So in order to get the complete picture, we revisited the T9 with another example, and tested it once again in 2025. And for full clarity, we put it through the same test (as close as we could possibly get it) to get a clear picture.

The JAC T9 comes to Australia in 2025 with a choice of two trim levels: Oasis and Haven. It's a straightforward run, and both trim levels get a good dose of standard equipment.

Pricing for the 2025 JAC T9 starts at $42,662 plus on-road costs for Oasis specification, while Haven (what we have here) is priced at $45,630 plus on-road costs.

It's a sharp price for a four-wheel-drive ute, no doubt, and the value equation does look attractive when you consider the level of standard equipment on offer here.

There's a 10.4-inch infotainment display, 7.0-inch digital instrument cluster, leather-accented interior trim with electric driver’s seat adjustment, single-zone climate control, a spray-in tub liner, side steps and LED lighting all round.

Stepping up to the top-spec Haven brings puddle lamps, front parking sensors, roof rails, a 360-degree camera system, heated front seats, auto-folding side mirrors and an electro-chromatic rear-view mirror. There’s also electric adjustment for the driver, but all models miss out on reach adjustment through the steering column.

Pricing is sharp, but the cheapest ticket into four-wheel-drive ute town is available elsewhere. When comparing 4x4-equipped models with diesel power and an automatic transmission, the lesser-equipped KGM SsangYong Musso is priced from a flat $40,000 drive-away, while the longer-wheelbase XLV model asks for $1500 more. The LDV T60 Max Pro is $45,253 drive-away. The recently updated GWM Cannon – with a new 2.4-litre diesel engine – is currently offered at $41,490 drive-away.

When you look at the $49,390 drive-away price for our test model (in New South Wales), buyers can consider a couple of different options. On one hand, less equipped options like the Nissan Navara SL ($48,228 plus on-road costs), 2.4-litre Toyota HiLux Workmate ($50,420), and 1.9-litre Isuzu D-Max SX ($50,700 plus on-road costs). This isn't exhaustive by the way.

On the other hand, you can look at high-specced offerings from other ute makers like the KGM SsangYong Musso Ultimate XLV ($46,500 drive-away, and our current Drive Car of the Year segment champion), LDV T60 Max Plus ($52,095 drive-away), and the off-road-focussed GWM Cannon XSR for $49,990.

And for something a little bit different, buyers should also consider the plug-in hybrid BYD Shark 6, which is priced from $57,900 plus on-road costs.

While this is our first published review of the T9, there's already plenty of stock available to look at on Drive Marketplace.

Find your nearest JAC dealer here to check out the T9 ute in the metal, and see if you can organise a test drive.

If you're looking for more pricing, specifications, and latest offers on the JAC T9, click here.

There's no doubt that the interior of the JAC T9 – especially in terms of bang for buck – is impressive.

There's leather accenting here, rear air vents and a big portrait-style infotainment system to fawn over, along with a digital instrument cluster and climate control. Not exactly a bog-stocker, then.

In the flesh, though, the interior is pretty good. The seats are quilted with heating, but don't go looking for a physical button to turn this on: this is found within the infotainment system.

Build quality does seem to be quite good, and some of the materials are impressive for the asking price. However, ergonomics are limited to only having tilt adjustment through the steering column (and not a lot, either). Otherwise, using basic (electric) adjustments through the seats gives you enough comfort as a driver. It's not as good as others in the segment, but let's say it's good enough.

Otherwise, we have the two regulation cupholders behind the gear shifter and electric park brake, some storage in the central lidded cubby, and a wireless charging pad underneath that infotainment display. Here, you'll find twin USB-A power outlets and a 12V plug.

In the second row, the JAC T9 is surprisingly spacious and comfortable. The doors aren't huge after all, but the amount of leg room and head room on offer is pretty good. Furthermore, there are USB-A and USB-C power outlets, as well as air vents to push some coldness or warmth around as you need it. There's even a 240V household plug here, which is an impressive inclusion for the asking price.

In the tub, you've got a locking tailgate that operates on the central locking system. This is important for security, and is something that a lot of more expensive utes are missing. So that's good news. There's also a spray-in tub liner, but the factory-fit tonneau cover is a little bit crude and basic. It takes time to remove and re-fit, and some of the brackets and velcro seem to be low quality. Once again, reference the price of the vehicle.

The infotainment system in the JAC T9 is impressive in terms of what you get for the money. Its 10.4 inches is a good size, and it comes in a Ranger-styled portrait orientation.

However, it falls into the increasingly common trap of trying to house and control too many functions, without many (or any) buttons to back it up.

Firstly, there is no volume dial for easy control of the decibels. You can swipe down a menu from the top of the screen for some volume control, but you know what would be better? A twisty knob.

There are also buttons on the steering wheel for the driver to control volume, but these also have a complication. Long holds of the same buttons do your skip function, so that means you need to mash the buttons like it's a Street Fighter game to get fast changes of volume.

Some functions are buried and a little hidden within the infotainment system, but owners will likely learn where all the important things are after a while.

Otherwise, the infotainment system works well. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are both accounted for, but there is no JAC companion app for any kind of remote functionality. Nor is there any native navigation available. For that, you'll need to lean on your own phone and data connection.

Coming from ANCAP testing that was conducted in Australia in 2024, the JAC T9 earned a five-star safety rating.

This includes an 85 per cent rating for adult occupant protection, and a slightly higher 87 per cent score for child occupants. Vulnerable road users (pedestrians) get a protection rating of 87 per cent, while the T9's onboard safety systems get an 89 per cent rating.

In keeping with a five-star ANCAP safety score, the JAC T9 has loads of safety equipment included to appease modern-day sentiments. There are seven airbags in the cabin, which includes curtain airbags and a front centre airbag.

And as the below table shows, there is not a missing acronym to worry about in terms of active safety equipment. However, some of the technology can be a bit onerous and pervasive.

For example, this is the first vehicle I’ve had that warns you for overspeeding before the fact. It reads the traffic signs pretty well, but suffers from the common malaise of also picking up school zones out of hours, highway off-ramps, and those signs you have on the back of busses.

But it has this strange habit of saying ‘overspeed’ and warning the driver as you're accelerating up towards the speed limit, and before you’ve gone beyond it. Maybe it’s pre-emptive, and maybe it can be adjusted, but it’s no doubt frustrating.

Driver monitoring beeps a lot through the course of everyday driving, but can be turned off relatively easily. However, this needs to be done each time the car starts up.

There is a capped-price service schedule available for the JAC T9 through dealerships in Australia, which gives coverage for up to 105,000km or seven years. With servicing required every year or 15,000km, you're looking at a relatively reasonable $1170 for the first three years. Going up to five years of servicing increases the annual average a little with a total cost of $2133.

The servicing cost average over five years is $427 per year, while three years averages at $390 per year. Going for the full run of services costs $3069, which averages out at $438.43 each year.

This makes the T9 a cheaper prospect to service in comparison to the KGM SsangYong Musso, but not as cost-effective as the recently updated GWM Cannon ute.

Insurance for a JAC T9 will cost $2291.13 per year according to an online quote generator for comprehensive coverage, based on a comparative quote for a 35-year-old male driver living in Chatswood, NSW. Insurance estimates may vary based on your location, driving history, and personal circumstances.

The 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder diesel engine – matched up with a ZF-sourced eight-speed torque converter automatic transmission – has a claimed fuel consumption of 7.6 litres per 100 kilometres. Not a bad figure by any means, and similar to what you see from other four-cylinder offerings in the segment.

In our testing, we saw a number a little higher than the claim of around 8.5L/100km across a mix of highway and off-road driving. However, we haven't yet had the chance to see what kind of efficiency is achievable with a JAC T9 around town.

Because the competition and quality of four-wheel-drive utes has improved significantly in the past six or seven years, the JAC T9 has something of a fight on its hands to carve out some space.

Like most other utes, we've got a four-cylinder diesel engine under the bonnet. In this case, it has two litres of capacity and a single turbocharger for 120kW and 410Nm. These numbers are at the bottom of the scale for both power and torque.

In the real world, the T9's engine does feel a bit lethargic and slow as you press the pedal. Give it more of a squeeze and you're rewarded with decent performance that's good enough for the application. But it's also not really a standout performer.

The eight-speed automatic transmission, a well-known ZF unit that has a huge range of applications, is excellent and does a good job of getting the best out of the JAC powerplant. It’s smooth and responsive with its shifts, making consistently smart and timely decisions. 

The drive system is of the time-honoured and mechanically simple part-time variety, which means you have rear-wheel drive on the blacktop and a shift-on-the-fly jump to four-wheel drive for slippery and unsealed surfaces. 

There’s also a low-range transfer case and a locking rear differential, as well as a relatively crude and ineffective hill descent control (for steep descents).

Perhaps the biggest problem for the T9 is the fact that it doesn't steer or ride as nicely as other utes at similar prices. There is a real firmness in the rear suspension that can feel noticeably harsh when unladen on rougher surfaces.

The caveat here is that most utes have a brittle and jiggling ride from the rear when unladen, but the T9 does feel particularly stiff over a rough and pockmarked road.

There’s also a bit of vagueness in the steering by today's standards, and the front end can feel strangely underdamped in some cases. Driving along wallowing road surfaces – like the ones that are affected by mining subsidence – can cause the front end to porpoise a few times before settling down.

Once again, keep in mind that most utes have a less than stellar ride quality when unladen, but most (if not all) do a better job than this T9.

The T9 does have a relatively short wheelbase, which might not benefit the ride quality, but does give an improvement to the underbody clearance and rampover angle off-road. In the course of testing, the T9 didn’t bottom out nearly as much as I thought it would.

And with the rear diff lock engaged, the T9 was quite competent off-road. Without the locking diff engaged, you can feel that there is little in the way of suspension travel available from the front or rear end of this vehicle, which means it’s fast to lift a wheel, scrabble and lose traction. 

But with the diff lock engaged, the T9 was happy to crawl along some technical challenges without too much issue.

However, we had the ignominious problem of a mechanical breakage in our first test car. While driving off-road (and collecting some video and images of the T9 doing its thing), we were reversing uphill in low-range and broke something in the front of the car. There was a loud thud and shudder, and we lost drive to the front wheels.

For a bit of extra clarity here, reversing up a steep and rutted hill in low-range does put a particular level of stress on your driveline, and should be avoided where possible. However, there are situations off-road where this might be unavoidable and it's something we should be able to do.

In the wash-up of this, we were told by JAC that it was the inner shaft on the front passenger CV that had let go under stress. At this time, we were also told that the test vehicle – which we were allowed early access to for assessment – was a pre-production model and was described as being not a fair representation of what Australian buyers should expect.

It's not clear what the exact difference would be between pre-production and production examples of the T9, nor is it clear whether a hard life of the pre-production vehicle up to that point was a contributing factor to the breakage.

We decided to not dismiss the breakage of the T9, but we also organised to retest another T9 at a later date off-road to re-create the same situation and test, and see if the problem was more indicative of an inherent problem or more of a one-off.

And in that case, we drove the different car on the same track in the same direction, and chose the same line to get some wheel lift like what we had the first time around. We reversed out of the same spot first go no problem, and then did it again with even more throttle input and strain to see if the same problem would emerge. It didn't.

It's worth saying that if you're hellbent on breaking a four-wheel-drive vehicle off-road, you can probably achieve your aim with enough determination. It's my job to test cars out thoroughly off-road, but not necessarily to find the breaking point.

So while we aren't completely dismissing or ignoring that initial breakage we encountered, we can at least point to a more positive experience in a different car where the same problem did not re-occur.

While most four-wheel-drive utes can offer the benchmark ability of a 3500kg braked towing capacity, the T9 cannot go so far. It's capped at 3200kg currently, which is a number that has bounced around since the vehicle first launched.

Firstly, it was set at the standard 3500kg level of most of its competitors. However, it was trimmed back to 3000kg, and the wading depth was reduced from 800mm to 650mm.

Subsequently, that towing capacity was revised once again to 3200kg, according to the current specifications on the JAC Australia website.

This is matched to a 320kg towball downforce limit and a 5630kg gross combination mass. The healthy 1045kg payload is good, but those who want to tow the full amount will need to be cognisant of not using the entire payload and full braked towing capacity at the same time.

The limit here is the gross combination mass, and owners should also always be aware of accommodating the towball downforce of their trailer in the available payload of the vehicle.

The JAC T9 is a solid offering in the value end of the ute segment, but it's butting up against some new and surprisingly polished competition.

From the point of view of standard equipment and safety credentials, there is appeal in the T9. And that warranty offering is impressive.

But against the likes of the KGM SsangYong Musso (which, dorky looks aside, drives better than most would expect) and the recently updated GWM Cannon with 2.4-litre diesel power, the JAC T9 doesn't convince enough through the driving experience or powertrain to be at the same level.

And with pricing that is sharp – but also not worlds away from the likes of a Mitsubishi Triton or Nissan Navara – buyers have some more established brands and offerings to consider.

Its towing capability is below standard, the suspension is a bit on the stiff side when unladen, and while the off-road performance is fine, the mechanical issues we had (despite being with what JAC called a 'pre-production model') do give one pause for thought.