What is the meaning of ANCAP? How Australia's top auto safety body found "safety deficiencies" in the Great Wall Cannon and decided not to reveal them until today - while you were driving your

Australia's top auto safety body knew in February of this year that the Great Wall Cannon was underperforming in key areas.

Australia's top auto safety body knew in February this year that the Great Wall Cannon had performed worse in key areas of its crash test performance, but allowed the car manufacturer to correct "safety-related deficiencies" before awarding it five ANCAP stars. rating.

ANCAP claims to have found two important and unexpected shortcomings in the Great Wall Cannon, namely "high head acceleration" in the steering column, which broke late, and "the possibility of a strong neck shift in whiplash protection" due to the head restraint. ANCAP says both are "biomechanical terms" used to measure forces in the group's testing procedures.

The discoveries were made during a crash test in February this year, but instead of informing Australian consumers, Great Wall was given the opportunity to fix the problems and retest the car, with new results published in November.

ANCAP has been allowing vehicle manufacturers to address issues and fix identified issues before retesting since 2018, but this is the first time the protocol has been applied to a vehicle that is already being sold to consumers.

Until July 31, 2021, Great Wall continued to manufacture and sell vehicles that had not yet been fixed, although ANCAP discovered these safety flaws in February. In total, about 6000 cars were damaged.

As a result, ANCAP is only now advising owners of vehicles manufactured between September 2020 and July 31, 2021 that they are "strongly advised to complete remedial action as soon as possible so that their vehicle also meets ANCAP's 5-star safety requirements."

The publication of the ANCAP Great Wall results was delayed for a long time, and testing began in December 2020. Cars Guide Spoke to ANCAP several times to inquire about the reason for the delay and we were told it was due to a delay in gaining access to the active safety equipment testing lab.

As it turns out, ANCAP started working with Great Wall to fix these issues and re-test the car from February.

Great Wall has stated from the outset that it is aiming for a five-star ANCAP result for its new GWM Ute family and has stated that it has corrected the issues found by ANCAP to create a true five-star product and solution that can now be retrospective. -Suitable for models already on the way.

New parts will arrive in December and the brand is contacting all affected customers to place an order for troubleshooting work from January or at the next scheduled service. 

“We are very pleased with GWM Ute's 5-star ANCAP result, which is a testament to our commitment to bringing the safest vehicle to market,” says GWM spokesman Steve McIver.

“Once we became aware of the first test results, we quickly made the necessary technical and manufacturing improvements.

“GWM's willingness and ability to respond so quickly demonstrates the importance of this 5-star ANCAP result. This makes an already powerful package even stronger, and we expect the appeal of GWM Ute to further increase as a result.”

But questions should certainly be asked about the ANCAP protocol, which allows important test results for any vehicle not to be disclosed to the public while problems are fixed, especially if that particular model is already on sale and in the hands of consumers. 

It's not, says ANCAP CEO Carla Horweg, who says, "We actually think it's a great outcome for consumers."

“The way the protocols work now, with the retesting path that has been in place since 2018, is that if a manufacturer can convince us that it can meet all the criteria, which is very strict, then we get that result. where cars that are already on the market need to be fixed by the manufacturer,” she says.

“We haven't seen this in action yet. It's only happened in Australia since 2018, it's happened where the cars weren't on the market (when the manufacturer does… testing before the car goes on sale), so it's not uncharted territory."

ANCAP reports that an initial Great Wall test was conducted in December 2020 and a full width frontal test (the one found to be flawed) in February 2021.

ANCAP blames a "confluence" of factors for the retest delay, but insists the car has always been safe. This is despite the fact that ANCAP never actually calculated Great Wall's security score after a "revealed security flaw" and emphasized that it was "important" that all Great Wall customers complete this remedial work.

“We are not talking about an unsafe vehicle here. We are not talking about a car that is subject to a formal recall by the decision of the ACCC,” says Horweg.

“In a full width frontal test, we saw strong head acceleration in the airbag, and we did a detailed investigation with the manufacturer and determined that this was the result of a late folding steering column.

“There was also the possibility of a high neck shift in whiplash protection, in response to this, the headrest was redesigned for the headrest, and for cars already on the market, this will mean replacing the part.

“We do not calculate points after identifying such a security flaw. As soon as an unexpected result is obtained, we conduct a problem determination process, and then the manufacturer needs to decide if they can satisfy the retest protocol. 

"If they go down this path, we will not proceed with the assessment until we have a final assessment."