08/27/2015
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - The Datsun GO was launched in South Africa in October 2014, from July available with an optional crash bag driver's side.
This was confirmed to Wheels24 by the Global Head of Datsun, Vincent Cobee during a whirlwind tour of South Africa recently.
He said that from the middle of 2015, the bag would cost an additional option in GO Lux model Pricing has not been finalized, but such a unit, he said, usually added about R3000 at a purchase price.
This announcement follows the stiff criticism of the new vehicle after the GO, an entry level hatchback, was released in South Africa without crash protection bags or antilock brakes worse, shortly after its local launch, GO also failed NCAP- global and United Nations crash test procedures approved, and in a recent world development NCAP called automakers to democratize security for all cars in the world by 2020.
In a study by Global NCAP released in mid-March 2015, it was revealed that millions of new cars sold in low- and middle-income fail basic security of UN standards for front and side impacts.
Yet, in all fairness, Datsun is not the only automaker that fared poorly in global NCAP tests At the end of 2014 Maruti Suzuki Alto also received a zero rating stars after failing tests; in January 2015, the Hyundai i10, Tata Nano, Ford Figo in the Volkswagen Polo even failed the tests with a zero ranking in most part because these models, as specified for the Indian market, did not have bags.
Consequently VW made available with a bag for Polo World NCAP tests and received a four star rating.
Back in South Africa, in India, there is in addition to the GO some other entry-level models from Tata, Chery QQ3 and Geely LC 1 0 unequipped bags crash.
While Cobee admits more must be done to make sure the GO, it doesn t want it done so precipitated It can not be just a bandaid to cover the problem, it must be done in a structured and organized manner.
Some developments of the car have already made the fully functional driver bag and these developments, he said, would be adopted on all models While other protection systems would be considered, he added, he stressed that the stopping distance of the GO light is nearly 20 better than its competitors.
He also considered this part of the road and crash protection broadly Our purpose is to provide mobility at all if we are to meet the younger, first car buyers for which affordability is primordial in this perspective, there are many other factors in addition to vehicle safety that lead to high road accident rate and death, we must address these issues as well.
Des Fenner, managing director of Datsun South Africa, said the company evaluated the means to contribute to the vehicle and road safety holistically More details about this, he said, would be available in the coming months.
Cobee also said Datsun had, since the beginning of 2014, has sold over 60,000 vehicles in four countries India, Indonesia, Russia and South Africa The automaker also plans to expand its range of products in South Africa, most probably with GO Cobeee but did not want to develop.
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