Nine popular cars fail basic safety standards, warns AA

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JEREMY MAGGS: The Automobile Association (AA) says nine popular cars sold in South Africa fall short of what it regards as basic safety standards. This, I think, raises difficult questions about whether some entry-level vehicles should even be on showroom floors.

But there’s a caveat here. With new cars already painfully expensive, where does consumer choice end and minimum safety protection begin?

I want to discuss this important issue with Bobby Ramagwede, who’s chief executive officer of the AA in South Africa. Bobby, a warm welcome to you. Now, is the AA saying these cars are unsafe or simply not safe enough by your standards?

BOBBY RAMAGWEDE: We’re basically saying these vehicles are not safe enough, not just by our standards, but we’re benchmarking our standards with our European and Australian counterparts as the benchmark.

JEREMY MAGGS: So when you say they’re not safe, what is the particular concern here?

BOBBY RAMAGWEDE: The greatest concern here, and this is coming from the trends that are emerging from the vehicles that we’ve tested during the #SaferCarsForAfrica campaign, is that these vehicles are equipped with too few airbags, and in addition to that, there have been quite a few vehicles that have proven to have weaker than acceptable footwells.

So in the event of a crash or an accident, the footwell can’t withstand sufficient loading to protect the feet.

JEREMY MAGGS: Now, if more airbags and other safety systems push up prices, is there not a danger, Bobby, that we risk pricing lower-income buyers out of the new car market altogether?

BOBBY RAMAGWEDE: So that argument argues that safety is a feature that should be bought as opposed to components like infotainment and sunroofs.

Our programme is designed to democratise safety and have that at the forefront of any vehicle and allow for trappings, as I mentioned, like sunroofs and infotainment be the determinant for higher pricing.

JEREMY MAGGS: Is it not ultimately up to the consumer, though, to decide what they can afford and what safety features they’re willing to pay for? Is that an argument that sits with you?

BOBBY RAMAGWEDE: It is up to the consumer. But our plea here has been both to the manufacturers and the government as well, to raise the standards.

Over the years, safety standards have been adjusted in order to keep up with both the times, the weight of vehicles and the speeds that these vehicles move at. Unfortunately, our regulations remain stuck in the ’90s.

Had they been updated to modern-day times, minimums like electronic stability control and at least four airbags would have been mandatory for all vehicles entering South Africa.

JEREMY MAGGS: Why do you think there’s a reluctance, then, to make those important changes?

BOBBY RAMAGWEDE: Not too sure why the government is slow in this regard. In fact, these changes were proposed as far back as 2020. They were meant to be presented to parliament in 2022, and today the process has gone quiet.

JEREMY MAGGS: So when you put these concerns of yours either to government or to the manufacturers themselves, what do they tell the Automobile Association?

BOBBY RAMAGWEDE: Let’s start with the manufacturers. Naturally, the manufacturers use the minimum standards as a crutch. Their argument is no crimes are being committed. And we agree, no legal crimes are being committed.

This is a crime of morality, knowing that they could produce safer cars for South Africans and Africans at large.

The government, however, acknowledges what we’re saying, confirms that we’re correct, but the process goes quiet from there.

JEREMY MAGGS: So what’s your next move?

BOBBY RAMAGWEDE: Our next move is to continue lobbying the government, continue to expressly state to consumers which vehicles they should avoid.

Historically, we’d merely advise them, but we think it would be imprudent of the association not to give clearer guidance in the form of an instruction of which vehicles we deem to be safe and not safe.

Lastly, to the manufacturers who know how to produce safer cars, to start producing safer cars.

One could argue that they would naturally want to increase prices, but our response to that to manufacturers has always been revise your margin expectations as you would have revised your margin expectations had the state ordered that these vehicles be safer.

JEREMY MAGGS: What specific vehicles are we talking about here?

BOBBY RAMAGWEDE: We’ve tested over 34 vehicles between 2017 and today. Vehicles that come to mind are the vehicles that have recently scored zero, one and two stars on the Global NCAP (New Car Assessment Programme) test.

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Now, if I’m to name a few, this is not all of them, but one that comes to mind is the Hyundai Grand i10. Again, this is the entry-level variant of these models, the Kia Sonet, the Haval Jolion, the Toyota Corolla Cross XS model, again entry-level model.

The last model, I can’t remember off the top of my head, but should consumers be looking for the list of vehicles that we’ve tested, they are available on our website.

JEREMY MAGGS: Is the AA effectively calling for some of those entry-level models to be banned from sale in South Africa, or is that pushing it too far?

BOBBY RAMAGWEDE: It is pushing it a bit too far. However, if we had the authority, these vehicles would not be on South African roads.

JEREMY MAGGS: Are South African buyers, to the best of your knowledge, being offered weaker safety specifications than buyers in Europe or other major markets?

BOBBY RAMAGWEDE: The short answer to that is for entry-level variants, yes, they are indeed being offered less safety features – passive safety features, might I argue – for their vehicles.

JEREMY MAGGS: Do you think the tougher safety rules unintentionally could shrink competition and make cars even more expensive, given the thin margins under which the manufacturers operate anyway?

BOBBY RAMAGWEDE: So that assumes that manufacturers operate under thin margins. I’ll give you an example. Volkswagen has published on their website that the cost of an additional two airbags for their Polo Vivo will cost the purchaser R4800. That’s the retail price.

We argue, if that’s all it takes, then add the airbags to the vehicle and make it available to all buyers of that vehicle. Similarly, if you were to take that and extrapolate it across the other manufacturers, then we’re not dealing with margin squeeze here.

We’re dealing with profit maximisation.

JEREMY MAGGS: Finally then, what practical change could be implemented immediately? Would you like to see tougher regulation, better labelling, or simply the manufacturers upgrading those entry-level models voluntarily, or possibly a combination of all of that, I don’t know?

BOBBY RAMAGWEDE: A combination of all of that. But I think the low-hanging fruit here, from a consumer’s perspective, is to demand the labelling of the vehicle safety rating. Once the consumer starts to purchase vehicles through the lens of safety, they’ll quickly realise what’s safe and what’s not safe.

Read:
AA renews call for safety ratings to be displayed on new vehicles on showroom floors
SA may get vehicles with higher ‘minimum compulsory safety standards’

In an ideal world, manufacturers have the power to make this easy. Simply produce vehicles that are as safe as the European counterparts, or at least upgrade the safety specifications to what we’ve prescribed.

JEREMY MAGGS: Is the AA gearing up for a further fight on this one, or have you gone as far as you can go?

BOBBY RAMAGWEDE: We are gearing up for a further fight, but in addition to that, our programme, Safer Cars for Africa, is going to grow to the extent that we’ll have a dedicated African New Car Assessment Programme.

JEREMY MAGGS: Bobby Ramagwede, thank you very much indeed. He’s the chief executive officer of the Automobile Association of South Africa.