The Automobile Association has released its second “Entry Level Vehicle Safety Report” assessing the safety features of 25 cars currently available in South Africa for under R160 000.
This price-cap is R10 000 (or some 6,7%) more than the vehicles included in the inaugural report last year, to account for inflation.
The AA says the purpose of the research is to “highlight the importance of safety features in new cars, understand how these features can save lives, and encourage new car buyers to consider safety in their decisions, and not only price”.
“Price is, unfortunately, a main driving factor in people’s decisions to buy vehicles. What we would like to see more of is people considering other elements of the vehicles they intend buying such as safety features, which can mean the difference between life and death,” the AA said in a statement.
The Association noted that this was “especially important” as many of the people who were buying or driving entry-level vehicles were those with the least driving experience, making safety features even more critical.
“In our first report last year, we highlighted the disconnect between price and safety on entry-level vehicles; cheaper models seemed to have limited safety features. It is disappointing that vehicles listed in last year’s report, most of which are still on sale, carry similar, if not the same, limited safety equipment as standard,” the AA noted.
The 25 vehicles surveyed were evaluated against the number of active safety features they have (ABS and electronic stability control), and passive safety features (airbags).
Vehicles with an NCAP rating from Europe were awarded points according to the safety rating they achieved. However, the scoring for the NCAP rating was applied only if the model of the vehicle on sale in South Africa was confirmed to be identical to the model that received the NCAP rating initially.
The AA emphasised that the survey was the result of “desktop research”, specifically assessing safety features only. It did not consider the structural integrity of the driver/passenger compartment.
The 25 vehicles were categorised into three groups (acceptable, moderate and poor) based on their safety ratings, according to the AA survey. Of the 25 vehicles assessed, only two were categorised as having acceptable safety. Thirteen of the vehicles were categorised as having moderate safety, and ten were classified as having poor safety.
In addition to scoring the vehicles purely on safety features, the report also considered safety weighed against affordability. In this scenario, the score achieved by a vehicle for its safety features was measured against its cost, to arrive at a Safety/Affordability Score.
Considering this, only one car achieved an acceptable Safety/Affordability Score, while ten are rated as poor on the scale. Fourteen of the vehicles were rated as moderate of the Safety/Affordability scale. See the infographic below (and the table above) for the list of the vehicles assessed, their safety ratings and their Safety/Affordability scores.
