First Drive: 2025 Geely Starray in the UAE

by Marouf Hussain Chowdhury. June 5, 2024.

After AGMC launched the Geely Starray last week, we drove the Chinese brand’s latest release at a recent event. Geely is doing well in the market with its recent launches, so let’s take a closer look at what Starray offers in a very competitive segment.

Geely Starray design

The compact SUV’s exterior design is a head-turner, especially the front fascia. The front grill is enormous, with sleek headlights—or “particle ray headlights,” as they like to call them.

Also, they incorporated the daytime running lamps running across the hood on top of the grille and extending down the side into the front bumper, which is quite interesting. The DRLs also do a little light show when you unlock the car.

Interior

The “stars” theme continues when you step inside the Geely Starray. A massive screen in the centre controls the infotainment system and, unfortunately, the A/C controls. The steering wheel design is also attractive, with a flat bottom and star-like shape in the centre.

The screen is responsive and functions well on a hot day, even though our fingers were sweaty initially. The A/C understandably took a few minutes to cool the car, but once it did, it worked well. It also has ventilated seats, which are always welcome, especially when a car has leather upholstery. The A/C vents are pretty thin, so don’t expect strong gusts of wind blowing at your face, especially on the driver’s side, where the steering wheel further blocks the airflow.

The upholstery is top-notch in terms of design. The PVC leather seats feel decent, and we appreciated the generous use of leather on the door card. For some reason, a random piece of Alcantara-like material runs across the top of the dashboard and nowhere else in the interior.

Stripes of horizontal lights also run across the front top of the dash, elevating the ambient lighting. The steering wheel controls were easy to get used to. The 9-speaker Infinity audio system was great, installed in the GF+ trim we were test-driving.

Geely Starray engine and performance

Under the hood, the Starray gets a 2.0-litre turbocharged 4-cylinder engine mated to a 7-speed dual-clutch transmission. It produces about 218 hp and 325 Nm of torque. We liked the fact that there was no delay during acceleration from a stop, and shifts were quite smooth. Having a dual-clutch meant it downshifts pretty quickly as well, so highway overtakes were easy.

Our drive was mostly highway, so we got a good sense of the ride quality of the Starray, which is based on the CMA platform also found in the Volvo XC40. The suspension is set up for comfort and soaks up the bumps nicely on minor road imperfections. Taking some corners during some spirited driving, the tyres start to squeal early, reminding you this is not a sports vehicle.

There is some wind noise after 100 kph, but the cabin noise is decent at speeds below that.

Our GF+ trim was loaded with safety features. We tried the adaptive cruise control on the highway and the lane-keep system, which is part of Geely’s G-Pilot system.

The system works well, keeping the car in the centre of the lane. You will constantly feel the system intervening with slight steering inputs, which, admittedly, we are not the biggest fans of, but we see the benefit of it for someone who might get a little distracted sometimes while driving.

Verdict

To sum it up, the 2025 Geely Starray provides a very impressive package at a competitive price. With a starting price of around AED 85,000 and topping out at AED 113,000 for the top trim, it certainly deserves to be in the conversation if customers are looking for a compact SUV, mainly because of how comfortable it is and the host of features available in the higher trims.