A Chinese SUV, the Landwind built by Jiangling Motors, on Tuesday received some of the worst ratings to date in crash tests carried out be Germany’s influential ADAC automobile club.
The results, reported in the latest issue of the ADAC’s monthly Motorwelt magazine, termed the â,¬15 000 ($18 000) vehicle’s crash results as ”catastrophic”.
In a frontal crash test the Landwind delivered the worst result to date in the history of ADAC crash testing.
Crashed against a barrier at a modest 64km per hour, the Landwind’s entire frame collapsed and stunned engineers had to ”amputate” part of the crash dummy’s legs to remove it from the wreckage, the report said.
A separate side impact crash, which is usually easy to withstand by heavy SUVs, showed that the Landwind’s designers ”hardly wasted any thoughts on modern security standards”, said the ADAC.
With no side airbags nor even padding, the dummy’s head suffered what would have been serious injuries, said the report.
Summing up its findings, the ADAC said: ”The Landwind is as dangerous as a tornado. It has safety standards which are decades out of date.” – Sapa-DPA