It's all about a cheap part that was not installed on this car
A crash test of the Chinese MG 5 sedan (the MG brand belongs to SIAC) was carried out in Australia using the ANCAP method. A car whose safety is good can receive a maximum of 5 points. Naturally, there may be less, but MG 5 did not receive a single point.
The sedan was subjected to a number of standard tests: a collision with a deformable barrier with an incomplete overlap (with a trolley), a collision with a non-deformable barrier with a full overlap (with a wall), there was also an imitation of a side impact with a car and an imitation side impact on the pole.
In the video, nothing indicates a bad result: the deformation of the body is at the level of cars of other brands (and maybe even better), the door openings are not deformed, the wheels do not press into the sills, and people in the cabin are not pinched. What could go wrong?
The sensors built into the mannequins showed exorbitant loads on the driver’s chest, head, and neck, and the loads on the necks of the rear passengers were also very high. This is due to the fact that the basic version of the MG 5 sedan does not have seat belt pretensioners in the front, and there are no seat belt pretensioners in the rear seats at all. Because of such a cheap detail, MG 5 failed in tests and greatly damaged its reputation.
However, there are other points that the testers paid attention to: traumatic materials of the front panel, possible serious damage to the legs of a pedestrian in the event of a collision with him, limited capabilities of the emergency braking system.
In general, if the creators of the machine had not skimped, then most likely everything would have been fine in terms of safety. But the Chinese considered the belt pretensioner an unnecessary element. Let us remind you that in Russia the MG 5 is sold for 2.15-2.3 million rubles.