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John Mellor’s
GoAuto Market Insight
Shortcomings in Chery
J1 crash safety highlight
ANCAP value to buyers
By RON HAMMERTON
THE prevalence of fi ve-star safety performers
coming down the engineering pipeline from
car-makers these days has caused observers
to ponder if the independent crash-test
system is really relevant to consumers when
making purchasing decisions.
And then along comes a Chery J1. With a
safety score of just 16.97 out of a maximum 37,
the Chinese-made small car scraped through
for a three-star rating, despite a comment from
Australasian New Car Assessment Program
(ANCAP) engineers that chest protection for
a J1 driver was poor.
In fact, the car was awarded zero points for
chest protection in both the side impact and
frontal offset crash tests. In the latter, cars are
crashed into a deformable aluminium barrier
at 64km/h, with only the front driver’s side
of the vehicle bearing the brunt.
It is undoubtedly a tough test, but safety
engineers believe it best represents a realworld
crash scenario, and it has become a
global NCAP standard, along with a side
impact and side pole impact tests.
To put crash performance in perspective,
the A-pillar of the top-performing light car, the
Alfa Romeo MiTo, moved rearwards 4mm in
the offset crash, while its steering wheel hub
actually moved forward 11mm – away from
the driver. Afterwards, the doors could be
opened and shut “with normal effort”.
The little Alfa scored a total of 36.1 out
of a possible 37 points – a stunning effort.
In the Chery, the A-pillar moved rearward
75mm, causing a large kink in the roof rail,
while the steering wheel hub was forced
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backwards 151mm. “High manual effort” was
needed to open the driver’s door afterwards.
The Chery – the fi rst Chinese-made
passenger car to be tested by ANCAP –
even trailed the performance of the lowly
Malaysian-made Proton S16 (now in runout
in Australia), which scored 19.96 out of
37 (for three stars) from ANCAP.
Neither the J1 nor the S16 have side, curtain
or knee airbags. The best performing lights
cars do, although other factors such as inherent
structural integrity are also signifi cant.
Electronic stability control, which since
2008 has been required by ANCAP for a
fi ve-star rating, is also not fi tted to the J1
or the S16.
However, it is instructive to look at the
performances of comparable single models
to see how much the addition of airbags can
add to an ANCAP score.
Hyundai’s new i20 managed just 28.07
points out of 37 when fi tted only with dual
front airbags – as was the case with the entrylevel
Active variants at launch – but when
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Means Performance.
Keeping safety in sight
Overall score
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Selected light car ANCAP safety scores
ANCAP
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May 18, 2011 Page 19
Chery J1
Proton S16
Ford Fiesta CL
Holden Barina
Toyota Yaris YR
Holden Barina Spark
Audi A1
Hyundai i20
Mazda2
Ford Fiesta Econetic
Toyota Yaris*
VW Polo
Honda Jazz
Suzuki Swift
Alfa Romeo MiTo
*With optional safety pack of curtain, side and knee airbags
Three stars Four stars Five stars 37 maximum score
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tested with six airbags (adding side and curtain
airbags), the result improved to 34.07 points
and lifted the i20 from four to fi ve stars.
Within three months, Hyundai Motor Co
Australia had the entire i20 range fi tted with
the full complement of airbags.
In the case of the Ford Fiesta, the base model
falls short of fi ve-star qualifi cation unless the
customer pays extra for a safety pack that
includes extra airbags and a passenger seatbelt
warning indicator. The most recent ANCAP
rating for the two-airbag Fiesta CL places its
points score at 24.84 points – four stars – for
the previous WS range.
Better-equipped models in both the
previous WT and facelifted WS ranges
turned in a 34.4-point, fi ve-star effort.
With the Toyota Yaris, a three-door base
YR with two airbags came in at 29.46,
while a fi ve-door model with the optional
safety pack of airbags scored a creditable
34.95 – well into fi ve-star range.
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