Photo Report: Driving a Haval H9 to the middle of nowhere, Australia – Part 2: Mildura to Broken Hill

A little interlude to our day trip from Mildura to Broken Hill.

This is Part 2 of our adventure to the middle of nowhere Australia with a Haval H9, which we baptised Ivanhoe. See Part 1: Melbourne to Mildura here. After crossing densely populated Victoria from south to north and keeping in touch with the world through a surprisingly perfect phone network, we are now about to get into the unknown and the desert: once Wentworth passed – a mere 50 km north of Mildura – there are absolutely no towns or villages for the following 280 km to Broken Hill! A sudden entrance into the Australian Outback it is indeed. By the time we will have arrived in Broken Hill, Ivanhoe will have already eaten close to 1,000 km of bitumen in two days: can’t get more of a ruthless test-drive start than this.

Part 2 of this adventure Mildura to Broken Hill, or from civilisation to nothingness.

In Mildura I am joined by my two co-drivers for this trip: Bas (Singaporean) and Sergio (Italian), making for quite a cosmopolitan crew with me being French and Ivanhoe being Chinese… This will enable us to give you a multi-national opinion of the Haval H9. I myself am already acquainted with the interior quality of both H8 and H9 SUVs but the guys’ first impression when climbing inside was “Wow. Didn’t expect this from a Chinese car.” It was the fairly consistent feedback of people that had a peek inside the H8 during the last trip, and given the H9 interior is almost identical to the H8 I am expecting more of the same during this trip. The fact is the H9 has leather seats and all the interior commodities you might ask for a large SUV and stepping inside makes you forget its Chinese origins, if that was ever an issue to start with.

Oops…
Smile for the camera! Jacked up Ivanhoe gets its wheel replaced.

Roughly halfway between Mildura and Broken Hill – in other words 150 km from anyone and anything, Ivanhoe’s rear right tyre goes flat, most probably due to the incredible heat the wheels have been subjected to for the past 750 km/465 miles we already swallowed in less than 24 hours. The Haval team said before loaning me the H9 they were testing new softer compound tyres, and these seem to be the wrong choice for the H9, given I had absolutely no tyre issues with the H8 in particularly rough terrain. Not to worry, this will be a good test of the tools that are available (or not) on board to change a tyre. And it turns out, there is quite an extensive toolkit hidden inside the rear door of the H9 that houses everything we need to replace the wheel. The jack requires a bit of Ikea DIY skills and the first car to pass by obviously stops to check on us: that’s the legendary Australian outback care for you. The elderly woman looks at our frazzled faces and the pieces of the jack in our hands. “Have you checked the car manual?” Mmm. Good idea.

Pit stop at Premier Independent Tyres in Broken Hill.

Tyre change in the middle of the desert in blistering heat is a good team bonding exercise and I’m grateful my colleagues Bas and Sergio are happy-go-lucky blokes that make light of any gremlins. We stop at the nearby Coombah Roadhouse – the only one of its kind on the 300 km stretch of road we are traversing – waking the owner in the process, to make sure tyre pressure is ok on all four tyres before resuming our trip to Broken Hill. The owner at Coombah Roadhouse, now well over half awake, inquires about our destination. “Oh you’re off to the Tibooburra New Year’s Eve festival?” Nup, but you have now picked our interest… In Broken Hill, we check in at the impeccable Red Earth Motel (I highly recommend it). The logical next move is to inquire at the nearby Goodyear Autocare for a replacement tyre, but – once again, the outback kindness – they refer us to the specialists in town for the type of tyres we are after: Premier Independent Tyres.

Like new!  Ivanohe being put to the test for the 4×4 of the Year award (notice same license plate)

All the guys at Premier were absolutely perfect. They inspected both the flat tyre and the remaining rear left one, and found extensive wear on the latter, meaning a burst was just waiting to happen to that one too, and also that Ivanhoe had been subject to a pretty gruelling routine before it was handed to me. But by who? None other than 4×4 Magazine Australia – the very magazine that inspired this trip and quite possibly my favourite magazine right now – used this very vehicle for their tests leading to the awarding of the coveted 4×4 of the Year this month. Ivanhoe finished 4th which was a surprise for everyone involved including myself. You can read 4×4 Magazine’s review of the H9 here. So that’s potentially why we’re getting hit by higher-than-normal tyre wear and tear. The tyre doctors’ verdict: replace both rear tyres with all-terrain ones as the H9 is a propulsion and the rear wheels are the ones doing all the heavy work and therefore getting most of the wear and tear. A quick call to Haval to ok the change – the team was super quick and available even though technically on holidays – and Ivanhoe gets a tyre refresh in less time than it took to write this paragraph.

Possibly the best invention of all time: drive-in bottle shop in Broken Hill.

This episode was a very good first test: of the on-board toolkit, of Broken Hill’s ability to replace tyres at 5pm on a Friday before a long weekend and of the Haval team’s reactivity and decisiveness, among many other things. And everyone passed with flying colours. We now have Ivanhoe equipped with all-terrain tyres fitted in Broken Hill, the gateway to outdoor adventures so they know a thing or two about what tyres can withstand anything. The only thing Premier Independent Tyres wasn’t is cheap: the $740 bill for two all-terrain tyres seemed a tad overpriced to me. Time for a beer! Cue what is possibly the best invention of all time: a drive-in bottle shop. First time my fellow co-drivers and myself see such a god-sent thing! The Mulga Hill Tavern was in full swing when we dropped by for a few six-packs. It would appear Broken Hill folks know a thing or two about the good life as well…

Pre-sunset light near the sculpture in Broken Hill

Last time I visited Broken Hill was with Damo the Haval H8 on my way to the Birdsville Track. Back then, I only deemed necessary to spend a couple of hours in town before setting off to Orroroo for the night, just enough to give a visit to the local Royal Flying Doctors base. But I missed the sunset on the Sculpture Symposium and the Living Desert Reserve. While the sculptures themselves are nothing special in my view, the serenity of the surrounding landscape was a perfect introduction to the desert drive on unsealed tracks we are about to embark on.

Broken Hill car landscape

Finally let’s get another look at the Broken Hill car landscape. Yes, it did change since July 2016 when I was here last, with a lot more new gen Toyota Hilux and Ford Ranger, including a Hilux campervan registered in Queensland (pictured above). The Toyota Land Cruiser pickup continues to rule the roost here, with many examples driving around town. In fact, it is the benchmark against which every vehicle is evaluated. An illustration of this is the questions Dan from Premier Independent Tyres was asking after changing Ivanhoe’s rear tyres. “Had a good look inside while we were working on it, it’s got everything you need in it! Is that a new brand?” Yep it’s by the same guys who also have the Great Wall brand. “Oh yeah I know Great Wall. How much do they go for?” That’s the top-end Luxury spec at AUD$ 49.990. “That’s not bad with such an interior Better than my $70k Land Cruiser ute! Does they come as a double cab?” (pickup) No, Great Wall does the utes, Haval the SUVs. “Ah that’s a pity, I would have been keen for a ute version of this!” Haval team: there is some wriggle room to sell a new Great Wall Steed ute to Dan from Premier Independent Tyres in Broken Hill, just saying.

Next stop: Tibooburra. Stay tuned!

Gauging a Toyota Hilux before taking off to the desert…