{"id":860495,"date":"2026-05-15T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=860495"},"modified":"2026-05-15T10:57:45","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T08:57:45","slug":"top-car-brands-in-deep-trouble-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/motoring\/860495\/top-car-brands-in-deep-trouble-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Top car brands in deep trouble in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Major car manufacturers are facing growing scrutiny in South Africa over the safety standards of vehicles sold locally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Industry stakeholders, such as the Automobile Association of South Africa (AA), have argued that some brands are offering African consumers cars with fewer safety features than those sold in developed markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This comes after several cars from top brands like Chery, Toyota, and Hyundai have failed or scored very poor safety ratings in South Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the most recent case, the Toyota Starlet received a zero-star rating for adult occupant protection during testing conducted by the Global New Car Assessment Programme (GNCAP).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These tests were conducted under the AA\u2019s #SaferCarsForAfrica campaign, which, alongside GNCAP, buys entry-level vehicles in South Africa, ships them to Europe and submits them to global standard crash tests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Testing revealed<\/a> that the vehicle demonstrated serious failures, particularly during side-impact testing, as it lacks restraint systems like side-body and curtain airbags.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the last six months, another three popular entry-level cars have come under scrutiny in South Africa. Hyundai’s Grand i10 received a zero-star safety rating, while the Chery Tiggo 7 and the Toyota Corolla Cross both received a two-star rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Toyota responded to the Starlet tests and to the criticism by the AA through a cease and desist letter sent to the association. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Toyota SA said the model assessed by the AA is obsolete and not representative of the Starlet currently available in the South African market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The automaker added that safety is its top priority and a non-negotiable commitment, and that it is dedicated to creating better mobility for everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It further noted that it consistently invests in advanced safety engineering, strong structural design, and accessible in-vehicle safety technologies that protect drivers, passengers, and all road users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking in an interview with The Money Show<\/a>, following a dispute with Toyota over the safety rating of the Toyota Starlet, AA CEO Bobby Ramagwede said the association would not back down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramagwede explained that the AA\u2019s criticism was based on a specific version of the Starlet that was available in South Africa at the time of testing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf one carefully reads our press release, you\u2019ll realise that we acknowledge that the vehicle that we tested was revised on 25 September, but when we ran the Starlet in our programme, it was the model that was on sale at the time when we bought the vehicle,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comes down to morality rather than legality<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ramagwede acknowledged that there was \u201csome fact\u201d to Toyota\u2019s argument that the tested model was outdated and that the current version has improved safety features, noting that the revised model added four more airbags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you were to compare the two variants side by side, the differences would be two airbags versus six airbags,\u201d he said. However, he stressed that the AA would independently verify the manufacturer\u2019s claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn order for us to make a qualified comment on that, we\u2019d have to test the new vehicle, which is exactly what we\u2019re going to do. We\u2019ve since bought a pair of those vehicles, and we sent them to Germany, and we\u2019ll crash test that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramagwede said the AA was surprised by Toyota\u2019s aggressive response, especially given the long-running nature of its crash-testing programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been running this program since 2017, and this isn\u2019t the first Toyota that we\u2019ve crash tested. In fact, we\u2019ve crash tested vehicles across many brands,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Ramagwede, the bigger concern is that vehicle safety standards in South Africa lag behind those in Europe and Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These standards allow manufacturers to legally sell cars locally with lower safety specifications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramagwede argued that this creates a situation where African consumers receive less protection than buyers in developed countries, despite purchasing vehicles from the same global brands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that some entry-level vehicles sold in South Africa would not pass safety standards in Europe or Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While manufacturers may argue that they are complying with local laws, Ramagwede said the issue ultimately comes down to morality rather than legality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur argument has always been one of morality. If a car is safe in Europe, it should be the same in South Africa,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramagwede also rejected suggestions that adding more safety features would make affordable vehicles prohibitively expensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe economies of scale allow them to introduce at least some of the parameters that we\u2019re arguing for without necessarily making dramatic changes to their margins,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Some manufacturers have publicly disclosed the cost of adding extra airbags. When you consider the value of upgrading the airbags, one might question why these features aren’t included as standard.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Major car manufacturers are facing growing scrutiny in South Africa over the safety standards of vehicles sold locally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":860500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11119],"tags":[853,17703,2041],"class_list":["post-860495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motoring","tag-south-africa","tag-the-automobile-association-of-south-africa-aa","tag-toyota"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=860495"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":860504,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860495\/revisions\/860504"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/860500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}