Wow. I naively thought they had come further on the safety front. Good luck finding many US consumers with those kind of results, regardless of the price point.

There is a video at the Autobild site linked. Click on the magnifying glass to enlarge it and then drag the slider to avoid the terrible music and see the impacts at reasonable speeds. Incidentally this is a luxe without even side airbags (or they failed to work).

How in the hell did this even get one star? That kind of carnage is completely unacceptable in this day and age. Negative stars is more like it. Or frowny faces.

My bicycle survived a 30 mph full frontal assault by a large hunk of concrete (don't ask) better, much better than that. It looks like they're using aluminum storm window frames as frame material here.

Sign me up for the "I'll wait a couple of decades" list.

Guys, come on. The car only broke in half. It's really not THAT big of a deal... *giant eye-roll*

The side-impact shots on the video are absolutely terrifying. You couldn't pay me to drive that...

Well what do you expect of a country that has laws that penalize the driver less if they kill the pedestrian vs just maiming them?

@jakay11: I suspect that the pedestrian would come off in better shape than the driver in this car.

wow... i'd rather be ejected out a window than get turned into a piece of human origami.

i suppose you can't sue if you're killed.

On the shorter video of the front offset crash, notice in the last clip there's nice a Michael Bay-esque touch at the end with a piece of glass slowly and dramatically rotation right towards the camera. It makes the horror of that crash become funny, to me at least...

That should buff right out.

Maybe the Chinese consider this to be cheap population control---making cars so unsafe that you'll die in a 45mph accident 90% of the time.

The missed the best video of them all.. The interior shot.

[www.youtube.com]

Watch the steering wheel.

Mike Tyson wishes he had an uppercut like it does.

Tiss but a flesh wound!

My sweet '87 Nissan Stanza was nailed by a Jeep Wagoneer at about 45 mph, and I was able to drive it after (well, about 20 feet to get it out of the road). That thing isn't even close to our standards from two decades ago. No way it gets any sort of approval.

No wonder there are so many mopeds in China. They are safer than the cars.

I don't think I've ever seen a car made out of Silly Putty before...

Take notice folks. This is a product of the emerging, world dominating, no holds-barred commi-capitalism... ("market socialism"?)
Crap clones, knock offs, and a fast buck (or fast Yaun) off the backs of slave labor.
No safety regulation.
Heck, no regulation at all.
The kind of run-away, anti-humanistic capitalism is what you might expect when the NeoCons fade and Libertarians run the world.
(And don't look now, but the NeoCons have sold the US to China by funding BushCo global adventures with Chinese investment.)
Also don't give me the typical BS about over-regulation hurting the car design business.
Germany (source of this test) probably has the most regulated auto industry in the world...
Rant Fin

@Mark Miller: did you seriously just blame libertarianism for this PRC-designed piece of crap?

Sorry, you lose.

This is the export model. Makes you wonder how well the ones for domestic consumption in the PRC are designed and built.

@Brian E: Testing or testy? Did you seriously suggest that I believe China is currently run by Bejing Libertarians? hahaha

Now that I think about this a bit more, I'm willing to give the Chinese some credit. They obviously understand the crumple zone concept, and they've carried it to it's logical conclusion - the car is the crumple zone.

See, when you look at it that way, it's really not so bad!

:)

@Brian E: Is essentially accusing me of making a "straw man" argument. (A failed argument thru a logical error.) Apologies as comment threads aren't great for public-policy elucidation, but you DO have things like Google and Wikipedia.

@Retiree: You get a Jalopnik Brilliance Award! And to take it a step further, with the human body being a great energy absorber, it can integrated into that crumple zone! And a dead Brilliance (BS?!)-9 driver won't file a lawsuit, thus protecting the tooling investment!

@Vintage Racer: Silly putty?

What about the 1986 adobe car? "German engineering and Mexican know-how helped create the first car to break the $200 barrier."

Quick quiz: which of the following safety tests is more stringent: the NHTSA crash tests, or the IIHS crash tests?

Now imagine what would happen if a private organization criticized the safety of Chinese-built cars in China. Remember, all Chinese automakers are state-run.

@Brian E:

So we won't see Consumer Reports giving this a 5 star rating??!!??

@Mark Miller: Thank you, Thank you. First, I'd like to thank the Academy, and my family, and my friends, and my little puppy Diggity Dog (may he rest in peace)...

@Brian E: IIHS hands down. Now imagine if the U.S. law was revised to make it more difficult for people to file lawsuits. No more liability! = No more IIHS.

Oh, and the right to sue IS being gradually taken away. So corporations have the rights of a citizen, (since 1866), but are only beholden to investors.

This is depressing. This is one of the few decent Chinese-designed cars out there, and naturally it sucks. Leaving us goofy Westerners to laugh at their backwards ways and silly hats and Red Menaces. Or something, right?

@jakay11: O RLY?

@rgseidl: This is how they fight the capitalist pigs.

This is why I'm not afraid of the stupid Communist Chinese. They can't even build a proper car. Imagine how shitty their nuclear missles are built.

@Mark Miller: I hate it when political topics come up at the Jalop, but you did bring this one up yourself.

You believe cars like this will be widespread in the US once Libertarians take over?

First off, libertarians (big or little "L") won't run this country for a long, long time. Being against the drug war and American interventionism almost guarantees that they will never see power in our lifetimes.

Second, American consumers are actually kinda smart. They actually want the safest vehicles. And, y'know, I really wouldn't care if this car came to America for, say.. 15k or less. It will still do poorly. The cheapness of the Yugo didn't save it's ass.

In a value-driven society this car is still a bad value even if it's compact-economy priced.

Look at the huge pieces of glass from the side windows....it looks like they aren't using tempered glass either.

you just KNOW that's on eBay next week with "fresh paint" and "i'm selling it for a friend, don't ask me any questions" tags

@skaz: Thanks Skaz. On political topics: I actually like to keep my fantasy car world apart from the real world as well. Sometimes I can't. I do think with Libertarianism there would be a tiered system of automotive quality. Those individuals not floating to the top but sinking to the bottom wouldn't get decent quality used cars as now, and survival of the fittest would mean only that. Consumers might be smart enough to want safer cars but the one's on the bottom would not be able to even dream of owning them. (And who says Chinese consumers can't be smart? Sounds like dangerous, parochial, American exceptionalism.) Libertarianism is becoming a popular thing. Look at the explosion of popularity of Ron Paul. (See top YouTube videos.) Libertarianism is influencing U.S. politics now. Unfortunately a critical eye is not being cast towards what it means.
Now...While I get this RSS feed outta my face, did you hear the rumor that a re-established and revitalized AMC is going to produce a Camaro-beating AMX?.... ;-)

@skaz: Hear, hear.. just look at the Suzuki Samurai. "Convicted of a crime it did not commit," all it took was the aura of being dangerous and it was dead to the market. This thing would never sell in large numbers here, after the first expose disclosed how dangerous it was.

Oh, and Mark Miller, your argument is a bit out of place here. This is a car site, not a political site.

@TPSreports: Thanks for proving my point. Don't forget to Duck And Cover!

@Mark Miller: If people can't afford safe cars but still want transportation let them buy the Chinese cars. Cars, in general, aren't safe anyways. We'd all be safer riding on horses.

AMC AMX?! NEW?! Where the hell did you hear this? Are you lying? If you're lying I'll find you and make you pay.

@Mark Miller: Blargh, one last thing. I never said Chinese consumers aren't smart, they just don't have the same selection/standards that Americans do.

The mass-market vehicle production showing up in China is fairly new.

"Le résultat est catastrophique" Makes sense in an language.

Im sorry but I cannot accept the fact that the car crumbled like a soda can because the sunroof was clearly in the open position. This only shows how unsafe it is to drive a chinese car with the sunroof open. Thank god they havent decided to test the convertible model.

Hmmm, always wondered what they did with all those empty Coors cans when they recycled them. Now I know...

Now remember, the family can still file a lawsuit on behalf of said dead driver. The manufacturer here has nullified this problem by creating a car that will kill the whole family.

"Which car company do you work for?"

"A major one."

@dculberson: "This is a car site, not a political site." Unfortunately that line has been blurred with the crap they pitch us now. Isn't the definition of a "bean -counter" close to being a "politician"? I mean they both talk the fun out of everything…

44 comments and nary a suspicion of the german testing. i'm surprised. europe feels very threatened by the growth of chinese exports. just saying.

Ugh, after watching the video for that Isuzu-esque thing, I'm only reminded that I really need to brush up on my French.

@camp6ell: Bruce doesn't collapse around his occupants in a collision, especially not a minor one.

@htrodblder: So THAT's why they make you close the sunroof, but not the side windows at the track...

@camp6ell: I'll bet Audi, Merc, and BMW are really sweating it.

Rooks rike i'm not serring my Cadirrac!!!

So you get one star if the car is even capable of crashing, or what?

Based on recent cases of substandard Chinese goods, it wouldn't surprise me if the car's paint contains lead, the airbag contains toxic chemicals, and the tire tread is cemented to the tire body with unapproved compounds. Ever since the "Made in China" label has appeared on all our manufactured goods, I've never had to return so many products to the store because they don't work or fall apart right out of the box. A lot will have to change before you ever convince me to put my kids in a Chinese designed and manufactured automobile.