Johannesburg – The findings of the AA’s latest Entry-level Vehicle Safety (ELVS) Report are misleading, that is according to some car companies named in the study.
The AA sampled 27 entry-level models priced under R200, 000 from 16 different manufacturers and categorised them on their safety ratings.
The report was desktop research that rated the cars on safety features such as ABS, stability control and airbags. It didn’t consider the structural integrity of the driver/passenger compartment but additional points were awarded to vehicles crash tested under the Global NCAP system.
Hyundai claimed that one of the factors that the cars were scored on was the number of stars they received in the Global NCAP crash test. If a car got a three-star rating, it would get 15 points towards its total score on the AA’s sheet, and if it scored one out of five start, it would get five points.
Suzuki said it was not fully supportive of the way in which the report was structured and its scoring criteria.
AA’s Layton Beard stood by the testing methodology, saying the ELVS Report notes that there are limitations in the desktop research and the only definitive test of a car’s safety is a crash test.
