Crash test results have long been used in advertisements as a mode of hitting the buyer where it counts... family. Commercials for minivans with the kids in the backseat; undertones of soft music; a few puffy headlines from automotive sections in minor daily newspapers; and plenty of info about star ratings, well... that strikes Mum and Dad right in the midsection.
And so it should. For years, manufacturers have been praising themselves as a result of terrific performances in crash tests, both here and in Europe. In some advertisments, it seems as though automakers have challenged us to take safety seriously. When Volkswagen's Safe Happens ads pop up during 'the game', you feel oh-so-embarrassed if your right leg does that little twitch when the lady and her friend get HAMMERED side-on.
(Links you need to see? Euro NCAP & SaferCar & Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.)
What's new? This here internet is a powerful thing, eh. It seems like crash tests will now be used against vehicle manufacturers when they really screw up during the design phase. Building them cheap, huh? Well, apparently they will pay, considering the prevalence of crash tests available to YouTubers. One such clip, which you can watch below, is for a Chinese carmaker. Brilliance by name; lacking brilliance in practice. The BS6 is not a BMW by any definition of the abbreviation, but Brilliance Auto is BMW's partner in China. (By necessity, foreign manufacturs all have a partner in China - General Motors/SAIC, Ford/Changan etc.)
First watch as the new Volvo S80 behaves in a frontal crash.
Perhaps Brilliance should have purchased an S80, taken everything apart, and rebuilt it from the ground up. But, they didn't do that. Instead they built the BS6. And here's the result.
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