Great Wall Steed gets two-star safety rating

THE budget-priced Great Wall Steed has hit a road block this week, with the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) awarding 4x2 petrol dual-cab variants a two-star safety rating.

It’s a disconcerting result for the Chinese carmaker, who brought the Steed to local soil in September last year on the premise that the “all-new” ute offers “outstanding levels of performance, value, safety and comfort”.

“This is a disappointing result for consumers and the brand,” ANCAP Chief Executive Officer, Mr James Goodwin said. “While the Steed is equipped with six airbags and electronic stability control, features which were not offered on the previous model, there has been little change to the vehicle’s structure to improve the safety of the passenger cabin.”

The ANCAP report indicates the two-star safety rating is due to poor performance in frontal offset (8.31 out of 16) and whiplash (marginal) tests. This resulted in an overall score of 16.49 out of 37.

Lower leg protection was poor due to excessive footwell deformation and pedal displacement, while steering column components were a potential source of knee injury for the driver. Dash components also caused the risk of knee injury to the driver and front passenger.

Despite the shocking result in the frontal offset test, the Steed received a perfect score (16/16) for the side-impact test.

In response to the damning ANCAP report, Great Wall Motors’ spokesman Andrew Ellis said, “We thought the additional safety features would help improve the Steed’s ANCAP rating. It’s clear to everyone in the organisation our ANCAP test standards need a dramatic improvement.”

He added, “[We’ve] set up a response team to investigate what needs to be done to improve the ANCAP performance of our product.”