The string of poor safety results from vehicles on the market in developing regions such as India and South America continues. This time, Latin NCAP crash-tested the Chevrolet Spark GT … and it scored zero stars.
The news comes after Global NCAP tests of the Renault Kwid and Honda Mobilio.
The Indian-built Spark GT that was tested was the most basic safety version available in the Latin NCAP market (a particularly popular model in Mexico and Colombia), with no ABS. It scored a zero-star result for both adult and child occupant protection.
The lack of airbags largely explains the poor result, as the structure was rated as “stable” in the frontal crash test. The low score for child occupant protection, meanwhile, is down to the high readings recorded by the dummies and the “lack of proper instructions” for the installation of a child restraint system (despite the presence of Isofix child-seat anchors).
“This is another disappointment from General Motors, especially in a model that has the potential to offer high protection levels, as it did when its basic version equipped with six airbags was tested by Euro NCAP in 2009 and scored four stars,” said Alejandro Furas, Latin NCAP secretary general.
“It is unacceptable that the European version of the Spark GT, which included airbags, is offered at a similar price to the Latin American version, which has no airbags,” Furas added.
For the record, the most basic Spark offered on the South African market – the 1,2 Campus – comes standard with ABS (with EBD) and a pair of airbags, while the range-topping 1,2 LT doubles that number to four.
Watch the crash-test video below…
