Chinese 4x4 Scores 0 in NCAP testing..

[Jim 1]

The first Chinese car to be sold in Europe has scored zero — the worst-ever score — in safety tests.

 

The JiangLing Landwind was displayed at the Frankfurt Motor Show last week and is expected to arrive in British showrooms within months. It is already on sale in Holland, Germany and Belgium and has been billed as the vanguard of a new invasion of Chinese vehicles.

 

The two-ton 4x4 scored zero stars in crash tests last week by the ADAC, the German automobile club, which carries out tests for Euro NCAP. “It had a catastrophic result,” said a spokesman for the ADAC. “In our 20-year history no car has performed as badly.”

 

Testers calculated that a driver would be unlikely to survive a head-on collision at 40mph, and in a side-on collision at 30mph the driver would suffer severe head and chest injuries due to a lack of side protection.

 

“This car seems to belong in the 1990s in terms of engineering,” said Chris Patience, head of technical policy at the AA Motoring Trust. “We will wait for the official Euro NCAP results, but if it really is that bad we hope people will think very carefully before buying this car.”

 

With an expected £10,000 price tag, the Landwind is designed to rival cars such as the Kia Sportage and Hyundai Tucson, both about £5,000 more expensive. The Chinese maker plans to sell at least 1,000 models before July 2006.

 

Original Story

 

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Not that i'd ever buy a 4x4 / SUV but my god.. regardless of how cheap they are, i'm never EVER going to touch one of these.

[dinkus 10]

Bugger me! That's pretty horrific!!

 

Look at how far back the wheel moves and how the roof folds in on the driver :?

[Jim 1]

I know.. its eye watering.. it just disintegrates.

 

I'm amazed that they are even allowed to be sold over here to be honest.

[Phil K 0]

It's crazy that these are being sold anywhere... name made me giggle though - what was it? Dingling Bumrush :lol:

[Dr Forinor 0]

What does a NCAP 5star crash test look like, just for comparisons?

[dinkus 10]

The front of the car crumples up, but the passenger cell stays intact with nothing sticking into it - if it's a 5 * rating the windscreen tends to stay intact too.

[Dr Forinor 0]

Wow, that's a lot of difference then.

 

Is there any place you can see the progressive crashes, ie from 0stars to 5 stars?

[Jim 1]

I would think the NCAP homepage would have examples of safe cars, etc..

 

http://www.euroncap.com/index.php

[dazzyvr6 0]

my god that thing is just scary!!

[bcstudent 0]

Blimey....at least if one drives into you it'll absorb all the impact energy. It appears to be made from cardboard and feathers.

[chrishill 0]

reminds me of a song...My JiangLing, my JiangLing, i'm going to die in my JiangLing!

 

truly scary, sadly i expect most people who'll buy one of these, ie school run mums and OAPs are blisfully unaware of what NCAP is.

[dinkus 10]

Sadly, they'll probably just buy one because it's cheap. But heck, if you buy a 4x4 for use on the road and don't research the safety figures - you deserve what's coming to you, really :)

 

I couldn't see any videos on the website, but the BMW X5 got 5 * and this is what it looks like after the same crash test http://www.euroncap.com/content/safety_ ... =9&id2=157

 

Edit: Ooh, it's American, but this site has some videos on it

[Dr Forinor 0]

I would think the NCAP homepage would have examples of safe cars, etc..

 

http://www.euroncap.com/index.php

 

They have examples, but not videos, I was hoping for videos of each star rating just to see the differences.

[stevemac 0]

Vehicles like that should be denied "type approval" & not sold in the UK

[bcstudent 0]

“This car seems to belong in the 1990s in terms of engineering,” said Chris Patience, head of technical policy at the AA Motoring Trust

This statement would imply that the early to mid-'90s cars we're driving around in are no safer though.

[Tempest 0]

Yup, it'll be unfortunately true that people who can't afford safe EU cars will now finally be able to buy such a piece of 4x4 junk, will buy it, show off to their friends et al., and the Chinese know this. People very often just look at price.

 

Also: Although this horrificly bad crash test result on a Chinese car might make us feel smug, let's look at how the Japs started, ... and let's look at where they are now, almost destroyed our brands, because WE, the car-buying public want cheap cars irrespectively of the consequences. All too often we don't care about anything but price. It's the same with PCs, stereo (Bush, Alba) etc. Those that do care are a niche market, unfortunately.

 

Even though the Japs have improved their cars, a mate of mine who worked at Jag once did some crash tests on a Lexus and a Merc (Jag were then going to reverse engineer the winner's A-pillar, as those gits at Ford are too cheeky and too cheap to do it themselves from scratch), and he told me how shockingly bad the results on the Lexus were, despite its premium price that a buyer has to put onto the table. Needless to say, the Merc was rock solid, German engineering at its best. But how many people buy Lexus because of the image? Loads, loads too many, all those that can't afford a Merc. That's how it works. In doing so, a lot of trade has gone to Japan instead of staying in our shores.

 

Rant over, don't even start me on globalisation :lol:

 

Tempest

[Jim 1]

I think to be fair that things have changed.. I was flicking through the NCAP results earlier and the Lexus's seem to fair pretty well these days! :)

[stevemac 0]

What's wrong with Bush stereos . :lol:

[dinkus 10]

What's wrong with Bush stereos . :lol:

 

?

[stevemac 0]

:rofl:

[Campaign 0]

I wonder how well a Raddo would do in an NCAP test ... ?

[dr_mat 0]

Pretty badly ..

There's no side impact protection at all, the headrests are CRAP (cause more whiplash than they prevent), no airbags.. That's not to say that they're any worse than any other car designed in the late eighties though..

[dinkus 10]

My last C faired pretty well in the wooden pylon at 50 test, but I wouldn't have liked to hit it head on... :?

[bcstudent 0]

My last C faired pretty well in the wooden pylon at 50 test, but I wouldn't have liked to hit it head on... :?

I seem to remember you saying at the time that a head-on would have resulted in certain death! By the look of the pictures if the impact had been two feet further back the outcome may also have been very different.

[Tempest 0]

Well, I now have the current ADAC club membership magazine with the crash test results on said Chinese Landwind 4x4 (a copy of the Isuzu Rodeo) in front of me.

 

Apart from the appalling crash test results they also slate its overall handling (soggy steering, soggy handling, too soft suspension, rear can break away), straight line run is difficult (Chinese probably not very good at the definition of tracking :lol:), the normally actually reasonable Mitsubishi 2.4 L petrol engine heavily overstretched driving this 2 Ton heavy vehicle :roll:

 

Apart from that they mentioned the fact there are not that many dealers for this thing yet, nor will getting spare parts be easy. Oh well, guess they're saying to avoid this thing, and there was me thinking of finally being able to show off to my mates with a true 4x4 :lol:

 

Tempest