Chery QQ5 – safe as houses.

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Foreign people often laugh at Chinese cars, the usual ‘jokes’ come up time and time again “bet that thing would crumple like a coke can” or “does it come with optional lead paint?” in reference to the recent Mattel scare where Mattel were employing a factory to make toys to Mattels specifications, including lead paint. It seems that the ‘Made in China’ brand was severely tarnished in 2007, but one company, Chery seems to be going against that tide.

Cherys latest mini car, the QQ5, which has yet to be officially launched recently took part in C-NCAP crash testing where it faired reasonably well against the giant crashing and testing machines of NCAP.

Full and final results of the crash test have yet to be published by C-NCAP, but we think the results are shown quite clearly in the above pictures of a post crash test QQ5. The front end 100% impact was taken well, the hood has folded to a certain extent, the airbag deployed (see top row, first right handside pic) the dashboard still looks attached to the car instead of pinning a passenger in.

The side impact crash onto the driver side has shown that the QQ5 can take a knock and not severley injure the driver. The interior picture (2nd row, left)  shows that a panel has popped off the doors interior, but that can be rectified before the QQ5 hits full production.

We’d rather wait until the full pictures come out from C-NCAP, along with a score, but it looks like a vast improvement on past Chinese cars tests. The QQ5 might actually be a car that Id want my wife to drive, or my kids – well maybe if it wasnt so ugly. Chery might be getting the safety aspect right, but they do need to concentrate on the designs of their small car range, only the QQ3 and the A1 actually appeal to us.