Ateco Automotive’s latest brand, Great Wall, is under a cloud after the Great Wall SA220 and V240 utes scored only two stars out of a possible five in the latest ANCAP crash test.

The only ute to score less in the ANCAP test was the Proton Jumbuck - which is about to be discontinued for a new model.

Competitor ANCAP results were Ford Ranger 3 stars, Holden Colorado 3, Mazda BT-50 3, Mitsubishi Triton 4, Nissan Navara 3, and Toyota Hilux 4.

Great Wall is the first Chinese brand to be imported into Australia and the crash tests will no doubt be compared to other Chinese brands crash tested in Europe, most with similar or worse results.

ANCAP chair, Lauchlan McIntosh, says: “New vehicles that achieve only a 1 or 2 star ANCAP rating - while meeting the ADRs - are a cause for concern.

“The results for the Great Wall vehicles were particularly disappointing as these are new models to the market.”

Ateco Automotive has put on a brave face and pre-empted the news with a release that the results are a “solid result for Great Wall.”

“Great Wall has continued its solid start in Australia after achieving a high two star result in recent ANCAP crash testing of its V240 twin cab utility,” claims the release.

That said, the release also acknowledges that “Great Wall safety engineers have been hard at work analysing data from the recent ANCAP tests from the moment it was made available, and are confident that Great Wall will continue to make significant progress with enhancements to the safety of their products.”

“We asked Great Wall motors to crash test the vehicles to ANCAP standards and the results were better [than the ANCAP test].”

Ateco spokesperson Daniel Cotterill says: “The result [at ANCAP] wasn’t far off a three star result and we expect the revised vehicles to get a three star rating.”

source: Autofile