The Chinese-made GWM Steed 5 bakkie sold in SA scored a shocking zero stars when it was crash tested recently with two other local cars at Global NCAP’s facility in Munich.
“Alarmingly (the bakkie) demonstrated a high probability of life threatening injury,” said Global NCAP and its #SaferCarsForAfrica partner, the Automobile Association (AA) of SA, on Thursday when revealing the results of their fourth round of SA car crash tests.
Two other cars bought in SA didn’t do well either - the Renault Kwid and Haval H1 were only awarded two safety stars (out of a possible five) and both their body shells were found to be “unstable”.
The Steed is not the first SA bakkie to be awarded zero stars - in 2018 the global, highly respected new car assessment organisation crash tested the Nissan NP300 “Hardbody” bakkie and came to the same death trap conclusion.
But South Africans appear to be far less concerned about vehicle safety than motorists in other countries: last month the NP300 was the country’s fifth best selling bakkie, with 475 sales, according to Car magazine. The Steed also made it onto that top 10 list.
On Thursday morning 160 people who bought the Steed 5 last month (starting price: R203,000) will have access to a video showing a locally bought Steed’s front cab disintegrating horribly as it smashes into a barrier, simulating an oncoming vehicle of equal size, at just 64km/hour.
A small group of local journalists who watched the crash test live via video at the AA’s Johannesburg headquarters five weeks ago were horrified to see the bakkie’s right front wheel shoot into the driver’s footwell.
Global NCAP’s official report states: “The bodyshell was rated as unstable and it was not capable of withstanding further loadings.
“The footwell area was rated as unstable.”
Alejandro Furas, Global NCAP secretary-general, said another zero star rated bakkie “gives us very serious cause for concern”.
The bakkie was awarded a single star for child safety.
“The contrast between the marketing claims for such vehicles and the reality of their poor safety performance could not be more stark,” he said.
The model, which was bought from a local dealership in July and crash tested in Germany last month, had no airbags or ABS - an advanced braking system.
But an updated model currently on sale in SA is being punted by GWM as the “new safety version”.
“Our bakkies put your safety first,” the company’s website reads. “Now with dual airbags and ABS with EBD.”
GWM made its debut in the South African bakkie market in March 2007.
The Renault Kwid - one of SA’s best-selling budget cars - scored two stars for both adult and child protection, but despite the deployment of both its front airbags, driver chest protection was rated as “weak”.
As with the Steed 5, the bodyshell was rated as unstable and “incapable of withstanding further loadings”, which means an impact at a higher speed would be structurally devastating. The footwell area was rated as unstable.
The car seat for the three-year-old dummy in the back, facing front, “was not able to prevent excessive forward movement” and the car does not have three-point belts in all seating positions.
Towards Zero Foundation president David Ward said: “With successful crash test programmes in India and Latin America, we can track the varying safety equipment specifications for cars manufactured in one market and sold in others.
“It’s therefore surprising to note that the Renault Kwid developed for Latin America, based on the original Indian version, has a better adult and child occupant protection performance, includes standard ISOFIX anchorages and has dual front and side airbags.”
The SA Kwid has no side airbags and no Isofix anchorages for child seats.
The Haval H1 SUV does have those three-point belts in all seats, but it didn’t fare much better than the Kwid in the crash test: weak driver chest protection and unstable body shells and footwell were reported.
As with the Kwid, it was awarded two stars each for adult and child protection.
The head of the three-year-old child dummy made contact with the car during the post-impact rebound, and “the biomechanical readings were above the thresholds”.
The National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications (NRCS), which falls under the department of trade & industry, sets the safety bar very low for new cars sold in SA, but is consulting with motor industry stakeholders to tighten up regulations.
According to Global NCAP, no vehicle should be sold anywhere in 2020 without ESC (stability control) and both front and side airbags, especially given that an ESC module for a car in production - if it has ABS brakes - costs no more than $60 (R920) and an airbag even less.
While there are no crash-test facilities in SA, South African manufacturers have been encouraged to offer their cars to NCAP to test, but have not shown much interest.
AA South Africa CEO Willem Groenewald shared Global NCAP’s concern.
“Since the #SaferCarsforAfrica programme’s first results were launched in 2017, we've been calling for an improvement in the safety standards set by government,” he said.
“These results again confirm the urgent need for this to happen; we simply cannot have unsafe cars on our roads any more. We have spoken to the NRCS about standards and, though the evidence is clear, we are eager to see movement in this regard.
“Action is needed, and needed now, because it’s about protecting South African citizens.”
GET IN TOUCH: Wendy Knowler specialises in consumer journalism. You can reach her via e-mail: consumer@knowler.co.za or on Twitter: @wendyknowler
