Tough utes from China's Great Car Manufacturer Great Wall Motors appear to be not so tough.
Breaking into a parochial market nich such as the Aussie Ute market is not for the feint hearted, but the sort of publisicty that the recent Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) tests achieved is not something any new product launch would want.
The Great Wall Motors SA220 and V240 utes from China scored just two stars out of five. The third ute, the Malaysian-built Proton Jumbuck, did worse, scoring just one star.
All three models received severely deformed cabins when crashed into a wall at 64km/h to replicate ANCAP's off-set head-on collision. The utes also had poor impact protection for both the driver and passenger crash test dummies, which recorded critical head and leg injuries.
ANCAP council chair and VicRoads manager vehicle safety, Ross McArthur, said the results for the China utes were particularly disappointing because they were new models.
Who chooses the model and the specs of the vehicles that are crashed?
Talking to a Great Wall dealer recently he was espousing the fact that they had models with lots of air bags and higher specked safety features. That may be the case but all brands are judged by the entry level (base model) as supplied.
The bid to grab the attention of cash strapped regional buyers may have come unstuck. While many farming and regional businesses are facing tought times with the drought there is a revolt amongst these buyers against shoddy product being dished up that fails in so many other areas.
Ateco (Great Wall importer) Managing Director Ric Hull said "Everything we buy now is made in China so people are comfortable with buying Chinese."
Being comfortable in purchasing low cost consumer or electrical products is way different to purchasing a work horse for your business and being confident that it will be safe to drive for the owner and staff.
GWM is one of the first Chinese car makers to begin a big push on to the Australian market with low-cost vehicles. Both the SA220 and V240 were launched in June, with prices starting at $19,990.
Sadly Chinese-built vehicles have a history of poor crash test performances. A four-wheel drive Jiangling Motors LandWind model famously scored zero in similar German crash tests in 2005.
We figure the ball is squarely in the Great Wall / Ateco court if they wish to be seen to be credible long term players in the ute market.