Latin America's Renault Sandero Slapped With ZERO-Star Safety Rating

1 week, 6 days ago - 8 December 2024, autoevolution

The Renault Sandero assembled in Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia is one of the unsafest cars currently on sale. The model has just achieved a fabulous zero-star safety rating in Latin NCAP's assessments, and the rating also applies to the Sandero Stepway and Logan manufactured locally.

Offered with four standard airbags and optional ESC, the Renault Sandero scored 32.83% in the Adult Occupant and 61.22% in the Child Occupant categories. In the Pedestrian Protection and Vulnerable Road Users, the model did 46.30%, and a whopping 0.00% was witnessed in the Safety Assist department.

According to Latin NCAP, the vehicle was tested for side impact, side pole impact, frontal impact, whiplash, and pedestrian protection. The side impact test revealed weak protection to the chest, and the pole impact showed weak chest protection and poor head protection. Moreover, the side impact structure revealed intrusion in the passenger compartment. The whiplash was deemed marginal, and certain Child Restraint Systems (CRS) failed in the installation tests.

On top of these, the local automotive safety watchdog found that it was impossible to disconnect the passenger airbag to mount a rearward-facing child seat. The seatbelt reminders also dragged the overall rating down, as they did not meet Latin NCAP's requirements. And, since the Renault Sandero does not have automatic emergency braking, blind spot detection, or lane support systems, and with the ESC being optional (standard ESC would not have helped it, Latin NCAP noted), Latin America's Sandero scored an incredible 0% rating in the Safety Assist category.

Curious to see how the 2019 Renault Sandero, as well as the Sandero Stepway and Logan, would fare against the latest one, Latin NCAP performed an audit test and found that the older car retains its three-star safety rating. The safety watchdog revealed that the new car showed worse protection than its predecessor in certain assessments.

Latin NCAP was profoundly disappointed with this model, yet not all is lost for Renault in Latin America, as the French car manufacturer has had another vehicle subjected to crash testing. The car in question was the Renault Kardian, which did way better than its Sandero sibling. This machine scored a total of four out of five possible stars, and Latin NCAP noted that it did 83.41% in the Adult Occupant, 82.92% in the Child Occupant, 47.96% in the Pedestrian Protection Vulnerable Road Users, and 83.78% in the Safety Assist.

Renault's Kardian was subjected to the side pole impact, side impact, frontal impact, whiplash, pedestrian protection, and safety assist tests, proving that not all of this company's ride’s sold locally have serious safety issues.

"It is remarkable Renault's progress in the Kardian as potential substitute of the Sandero family," said Latin NCAP's Secretary General, Alejandro Furas. "Renault's efforts to improve safety performance in popular models is welcomed by Latin NCAP and we look forward to having Renault's first Latin NCAP five-star model soon. Sandero's performance reflects the past of Renault's efforts that already in 2019 showed a positive reaction by adding side head and thorax airbags as standard."