Brilliance: Zero Points in Crash-Test Safety and Passenger Protection

The Chinese brand Brilliance is – unlike in Europe - selling a few hundred cars in some developing and Third World countries, where safety doesn't play such an important role. Egypt is unfortunately one of these countries were car companies do not pay much attention to the safety of their clients and consequently pay no attention at all to the passive and active safety of their cars. And Brilliance Egypt is a very good – or shall I rather say 'bad' – example for that.

Through misleading information and misleading advertisement campaigns the 'Bavarian Auto Group', which is among other importer and assembler of BMW, Brilliance, Mahindra and MINI in Egypt, succeeded in 'convincing' the Egyptian public and the Egyptian customers that Brilliance cars are among the safest cars worldwide.

Now, this big lie has been confuted and the opposite was proved, showing how Bavarian Auto Group is misleading the Egyptian public and at the same time jeopardizing the image and credibility of the renowned German brand BMW, since there is now another very embarrassing crash-test and safety result for Brilliance.

After the devastating result for the mid-size Brilliance Galena (BS6) in the EuroNCAP crash-test in 2007, the smaller model of Brilliance, the Splendor (BS4), now even topped the previous catastrophic crash-test result by receiving only zero points out of five possible points in the German ADAC Crash-test, which is one of the most renowned and strict crash-tests world-wide.

Not only – according to the advertisements of Bavarian Auto Group – is 'the Brilliance assembled on the same assembly line like the locally-assembled BMWs' but they also share several components in the assembling process!

Nevertheless, all these misleading information and advertisements could not hinder the publication of the catastrophic results of the German ADAC crash-test and also the European EuroNCAP crash-test in the independent Egyptian automotive media, as we had featured this crash-test results in one of our previous issue of Auto Arabia Magazine as well as on our website.

And while the 'bigger' Brilliance Galena model received 1 or 2 points in some parts of the EuroNCAP crash-test and failed completely in the other sections of the crash-test, the 'smaller' Brilliance Splendor model couldn't receive even one point in the German crash-test.

Back in 2007 the Brilliance mother-company withdrew the Brilliance Galena (BS6) from the international markets until they improve the safety features of its models.

In Egypt of course nothing similar was done in order to save Egyptian customers or Brilliance owners from getting hurt in any accident. On the contrary: When the crash-test result were revealed in our magazine and our website, the Bavarian Auto Group (BAG) intensified immediately their advertising campaigns in local newspaper and some magazine praising the 'unique and extraordinary' active and passive safety features, in order to 'distract' readers and potential buyers from this serious safety issue.

Unfortunately some magazines and newspaper published those paid editorials and advertorials without paying any attention to their journalistic responsibility towards their readers. But this is a totally different story which we will analyze at a different occasion.



Back to the Brilliance crash-test. The German crash-tester and the German Automobile Club said the Brilliance Splendor (BS4) is using very old safety-technology from the 90s.

The floor of the Brilliance was torn in pieces at the frontal crash. The dash-board including the sharp-ended and uncovered steel parts beneath it enter into the passenger cabin, thereby creating serious injuries to the driver and the front passenger.

I hope that all the large newspapers like Al-Ahram, Akhbar El Yom, El Gomhuria, El Masry El Youm, etc. will publish this crash-test result and inform their readers about this serious safety issue.

And I hope that also the large insurance companies like Allianz and all the others will take these crash-test results into consideration when ensuring such dangerous cars and their owners in the future. Because the safer the car is, the better the passengers are protected in an accident – and therefore will cost the insurance companies less at the end.

I wonder how long BMW in Germany will accept to be associated with this Chinese brand and its negative image in Egypt.


TS