MG cars will all be five-star safe, soon

MG Motor Australia wants to be a ridgey-didge choice for Australian new-car buyers and claims that, soon, every single car it sells in this country will have a five-star ANCAP safety rating.

That's a big call from a company whose three cars currently don't score maximum points, but the former British sports car company turned mainstream challenger insists it's committed to ensuring high levels of safety.

Marketing and communications senior manager at MG Motors Australia, Danny Lenartic, said that MG's parent company, China's enormous Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC), is serious about becoming a headline player in the Australian market, and has a defined strategy to build its reputation.

"There's a commitment from SAIC to ensure that all our future models are five-star. I can't put a time line on that but it's going to happen. That's the message from the top," he said.

MG's parent company SAIC has transformed the MG brand that many people would know of, a British car-maker born in 1924 that focussed on loud, raw and fun sports cars.

Today the company has its sights set on competing with mainstream players like Kia.
SAIC has incredibly deep pockets. As China's biggest auto-maker the company pumped out an astonishing 6.5 million vehicles in 2016. It wants to be a global player and winning over buyers in one of the toughest markets in the world – Australia – is key to its international strategy.

Currently the most important car in three vehicle range is its just-launched medium SUV, the MG GS. Priced from $23,990, the medium-sized high-rider was crash-tested by the Australasian New Car Assessment Program in January and scored four out of five stars.

The GS missed out on five stars in part because it lacks autonomous emergency braking (AEB) and rear occupant seatbelt reminders. The omission of lane support systems and a driver's knee airbag may have hurt its score too.

But MG Motor Australia's general manager Zhu Chao told motoring.com.au the GS is booked in to be retested by ANCAP later in the year.

"You can see that in the fourth quarter of this year. We have already booked the time window with ANCAP."

"But if you look at the result, it protects [occupants] quite well," he insisted.

Asked if he was confident of attaining a five-star ANCAP safety rating after the retest later in the year, the MG Australia chief responded: "Sure, yes. Some small changes are required."

ANCAP told motoring.com.au that it hopes to have the updated MG GS test results made public before the end of 2017.

It's not clear whether MG plans to update its MG 3 compact car and MG6 small car to attain better safety scores. The MG 3 currently holds a three-star ANCAP rating, while the MG 6 has four stars.