Are You Safer In A Geely Emgrand, A Fiat Panda, A Jeep Grand Cherokee Or A Jaguar XF?
Ask a Westerner what he or she thinks of Chinese cars, and the answer will be predictable: unsafe. Thanks to China’s slower crash test speeds and low-cost manufacturing, Chinese cars have largely not met global safety standards, and Youtube videos have long cemented the impression that Chinese cars are fundamentally unsafe. But as with any growing industry, the Chinese are stepping their game up. Far from a global embarrassment, the latest Geely Emgrand even earned four stars in Euro-NCAP testing. That’s not enough to erase China’s reputation for unsafe cars, as five star performances are rapidly becoming the standard in Europe. But it is enough to match the achievements of other modern European cars, most notably the updated Fiat Panda. Though the Panda is considerably smaller than the Emgrand, and therefore is at something of a safety disadvantage, the price difference between the two cars is likely to be negligible, making the comparison quite interesting. Meanwhile, there are other four-star (or should we call it “Chinese Quality”?) cars in NCAP’s latest round of testing, including the considerably more expensive Jaguar XF and Jeep Grand Cherokee. Check out the reports for the XF, Panda and Emgrand in the gallery below, or surf on over to Autobild for more details on where these cars came up short on safety…
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Does this really surprise anyone? It's only a matter of time before the Chinese start catching up in terms of safety. They probably won't ever offer great dynamic driving cars but they will catch up in terms of emissions and safety. If nothing else, the Chinese are very ambitious and reputation is important to them.
They're coming...
I'm a little surprised at GC. Wrangler, sure... Those easily removable doors ought to penalize the side-impact safety. But GC should be an equivalent of ML-class.
Geely means business. We had a chance to check out the EmGrand and the Geely Panda at an autoshow, and I was impressed. They've improved to Korean levels of interior quality. Not Korean as in Ssangyong, but Korean as in Hyundai. Everything seems solid and the build quality is good. Not all Chinese cars are garbage. Geely and Haima make some good cars, though I've yet to sample Haima's new generation vehicles... The Haima3 should be good for some laughs, because although it looks a little like a Mazda3, it's actually based on a next-generation development of the Mazda Protege. And as Protege owners will tell you, that's not necessarily a bad thing...