GWM remains mum on zero-star Steed 5

Second local bakkie to raise serious safety concerns.

Facelift GMW Steed 5

More than a day after the Automobile Association of South Africa (AA) and Safer Cars for Africa made the results public of their latest round of crash tests on Friday, Chinese car maker Great Wall Motors (GWM) have still not commented on the findings.

The base Steed 5 model double cab scored an alarming zero stars during the testing conducted at a laboratory in Germany, during which another vehicle that falls under the GWM banner, the Haval H1, and the Renault Kwid were also tested. The H1 and Kwid both scored a two-star rating for adult occupants and another two each for child safety.

Along with the zero stars the Steed received for adult safety, it received a solitary star for child protection. The AA commented that the Steed demonstrated “a high probability of life threatening injury”.

More than 24 hours after The Citizen approached GWM for reaction on the test results, the car maker still hasn’t responded by Friday afternoon neither have it made any public statement on the matter.

Renault swiftly responded to The Citizen’s approach for reaction, although all it was prepared to say is that “Renault South Africa chooses not to comment on this topic”.

As expected, the Global NCAP’s major concern following the latest round of testing done in conjunction with Safer Cars for Africa is the Steed’s poor safety results. Although the base model that was tested is the only model in the particular range not to feature airbags, the AA questioned whether airbags would have been enough to save the driver from serious injury based on the damage suffered by the crash test dummy.

Two years ago, the Nissan Hardbody NP300 double cab also failed to score a star in a similar crash test in the Safer Cars for Africa programme. Despite various calls from in and around the motoring industry, that very same model is still being sold locally.

In September, 362 new NP300s were sold and 191 GWM Steeds. Although these numbers dwarf in comparison to South Africa’s three most popular bakkies, the Toyota Hilux, Ford Ranger and Isuzu D-Max, they are much more affordable, with the Steed starting at R202 900.

“Another zero-star rated bakkie gives us very serious cause for concern in our latest crash test results for Africa,” said Alejandro Furas, Global NCAP Secretary General.

“The potential for life threatening injury in the Steed 5 follows the zero-star performance of the Nissan Hardbody pick up. The contrast between the marketing claims for such vehicles and the reality of their poor safety performance could not be more stark.”

David Ward, president of the Towards Zero Foundation, said: “This is a worrying set of results for the safety of both adult and child occupants in these popular African cars. Our second #SaferCarsforAfrica zero rating in the Bakkie category, with the high probability of life-threatening injury, should be ringing alarm bells for any consumer considering the purchase of a Steed 5 pick-up.”

AA CEO Willem Groenewald again stressed the importance of stricter regulations around the safety of cars sold in Africa.

“I concur with both Alejandro and David that these results are worrisome and cause for 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. These results again confirm the urgent need for this to happen; we simply cannot have unsafe cars on our roads anymore,” said Groenewald.

“We have spoken to the National Regulator for Compulsory Standards 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.”

A total of 15 cars have been tested through the Safer Cars for Africa programme which is supported by the Bloomberg Philanthropies and the FIA Foundation. All the vehicles were bought at local dealerships in base spec before being shipped off to Germany where Furas and his team prepares them for testing.

The Toyota Etios and Avanza, along with the Honda Amaze, all manage to score four stars, while the Renault Sandero, Volkswagen Polo Vivo, Toyota Yaris, Kia Picanto, Hyundai i20 and Suzuki Ignis received three stars. The Kwid and H1 have the only ones to score two stars thus far, with the Datsun Go+ only receiving one star. Along with the Steed 5 and NP300, the other car to that failed to score a point was the Chery QQ3.