It’s almost a cliche these days to point out to a Boomer that “they don’t build them like they used to,” is actually a good thing because cars these days are so much safer than they were in the 1960s and 1970s. That doesn’t mean that all cars are equally safe, though. Some are definitely worse than others. Take, for example, two cars not sold in the U.S., the MG 5 and Mahindra Scorpio. As Motor1 recently reported, both got zero stars in their Australasian New Car Assessment Program.
From a design standpoint, the MG 5 looks decent enough, and some might scoff at it being dinged for not having a driver monitoring system or child detection system, but it also lacks seatbelt pre-tensioners and a center airbag to keep occupants from smashing into each other in the event of a crash.
Based on the ANCAP crash results, you also really don’t want to be in an MG 5 when it crashes, with the report declaring, “The driver’s chest deflection exceeded limits and was rated POOR. Structures in the dashboard were a potential source of injury for the driver and a penalty was applied, with protection of the upper legs was rated MARGINAL. Protection of the driver’s lower legs was POOR.”
The Mahindra Scorpio also recently scored zero stars in its ANCAP crash test. That’s partly because the third row lacks side head-protecting airbags. And while the ANCAP test only evaluated the six-seat version, there’s a seven-seat version available in New Zealand that only has a lap belt for the center second-row passenger.
Testing also found that the “front structure of the Mahindra Scorpio presented a high risk to occupants of an oncoming vehicle in the MPDB test (which evaluates vehicle-to-vehicle compatibility), and the maximum 8.00 point penalty was applied. In the full width frontal test, protection of the driver dummy was WEAK for the chest and GOOD for all other critical body areas. Protection of the rear passenger head, neck and chest was POOR based on dummy readings and high seatbelt loads.”
As much as we love the idea of getting our hands on forbidden fruit, we’re just going to say it’s probably fine that neither of these cars are sold in the U.S. We all want things we can’t have, but sometimes there’s a good reason we can’t have them.
