- Too many drivers and car owners only learn about crash safety in the dramatic post-collision phase.
- Beneath all the marketing speak, there are real engineering issues you need to understand about car safety in South Africa.
- And just how safe, or not, the most popular family cars really are.
New-car buyers should think a lot about vehicle crash safety. But very few buyers actually understand it.
For South African car buyers, crash safety is deeply confusing. It's because, unlike in markets like the United States, most of Europe, and Australia, there are no safety tech regulations for new cars in South Africa. That's why you can still buy a new car in South Africa in 2016 without any airbags.
Think we are joking? Mahindra's Boleo and Suzuki's SuperCarry don't have any airbags or ABS.
Car companies don't like talking about entry-level car crash safety in South Africa, because some of them sell a lot of low-cost cars without fundamental safety features. The most notable one is ESP (electronic stability control).
Why ESP matters so much
The ESP system, which works off your car's ABS, helps you maintain control if you encounter a slippery road surface. Or need to apply a lot of steering angle at high speed to avoid a collision. It's all about skid prevention.
Unless you are a very skilled driver, you are probably going to lose steering authority and control if you hit some diesel or standing water, or need to swerve around cattle that's wandered into the road, at night. That's where ESP does its work. Sensors and accelerometers measure tyre grip, steering force, road angle, and speed. When you are beyond those parameters, the ESP system applies corrective brake force to individual wheels, to help calm and straighten the car's posture. Keeping you in control, instead of starting a skid.
ESP is a required standard feature in Europe and Australia. But not in South Africa. And although having ABS brakes helps a lot, without ESP added to the system (and both functioning on the same system), you are left quite vulnerable.
So, you are thinking of a new car, but the absolute tragedy of all those festive season South African road deaths is still in your mind. And, legitimately, it's edging you towards thinking more deeply about safety specs and features for your next car.
We've put together this guide to help you better understand what the top 5 most popular passenger cars in South Africa really offer in terms of true crash safety.
VW Polo Vivo
Not a new car design, at all. But a safe one. Vivo is a continuation of the fifth-gen Polo, which originally went on sale in 2009.
The Vivo is structurally very old, as it simply borrows the fifth-gen Polo's design. But that's not necessarily a bad thing, because when the fifth-gen Polo was being developed in the late 2000s, the German car industry, and VW, was at its peak in terms of engineering prowess.
The fifth-gen Polo scored 5 stars in the rigorous Australian ANCAP crash safety tests, and because Vivo is based on the same structure and engineering as those Polos, it's a credibly safe car.
For a long time, VW South Africa's weakness was a failure to offer ESP as a standard feature across all Vivos. Under pressure from Suzuki's Swift, VW finally upgraded the Polo Vivo with ESP on all versions in August 2024.
Vivo might be based on tech from the late 2000s, but it's a proven design. From an era where German engineering was truly unrivalled, even in small cars. And the ESP upgrade has addressed its only real safety spec issue.
Want a new or used Vivo? We have the best selection on sale
Suzuki Swift
The car that rebuilt Suzuki's reputation in South Africa. A lot of new cars sold in the local market are now built in India, some with less-than-stellar structural integrity or safety features.
South African Swifts aren't Japanese. They are built in India, but they do have a credible suite of safety features. You get six airbags, ABS and ESP. Suzuki South Africa has not gone short on the safety kit with its latest Swift.
But what about Swift's structural crash safety, when a collision cannot be avoided? ANCAP tests for the Swifts sold before August 2025 weren't great. The Suzuki received only 1 star in these Australian crash tests, which is terrible, due to the absence of structural reinforcement.
Suzuki did upgrade the structure of its Japanese-built Swifts for the Australian market to European spec, adding absorption bars to the body structure. In revised crash tests, the upgraded Swift scored 3 stars. The issue is that South African Swifts are built in India, not Japan. This creates a lack of clarity about the structural upgrades made for Australian and European market Swifts, all made in Japan, compared tot South African Swifts, which all come from India.
Want a new or used Suzuki Swift? We have the best selection for sale
Toyota Corolla Cross
Toyota's locally made, very popular crossover. The same model, which looks identical across global markets, can vary widely by region in terms of its safety tech. But Toyota South Africa's marketing people know what they are doing, which is why even the 1.8 Xi base spec has ESP and six airbags.
The European spec Corolla Cross has scored an excellent 5 stars in the most demanding crash safety tests. Structurally, there should be no difference between the locally made Corolla Cross, assembled in Proscpton (KZN), and the European-tested models built in Japan.
Toyota is now nearly 30% of the total new vehicle market in South Africa. And the dominant brand in nearly every segment it sells in. That's why it has the money to ensure that Corolla Cross, even as a locally built model, has proper safety spec throughout.
Want a new or used Corolla Cross? We have the best selection for sale
Chery Tiggo 4
When the first Chery cars arrived in South Africa during the late 2000s, they were terrible to drive with negligible safety or structural integrity.
But Chinese car companies do 50 years worth of development in only 10. That's why Chery's Tiggo 4 is now the fourth-most-popular new car in South Africa.
There's never an absence of spec with any Chery Tiggo 4, and even the most basic models have ESP. Structural safety is beyond question, too, with the Tiggo 4 Pro scoring 5 stars during demanding ANCAP crash tests conducted in November 2024. And the more affordable Tiggo 4?
Want a new or used Chery Tiggo 4? We have the best selection for sale
Hyundai Grand i10
Once a value superstar for South African buyers. But now a vehicle with the misfortune of a terrible crash safety rating.
The issue with South African i10s, is that they are built in India. And they are built to a lower safety standard than i10s sold in Europe, which are sourced from Turkey. It's important to understand the difference.
European Hyundai i10s have an internal model code of 'AC3', but the South African cars, imported from India, are actually Grand i10s, with the 'AI3' Hyundai internal model code. And different model codes don't mean just cosmetic or trim differences; they mean different core engineering and components.
What safety problems are there with these Indian-made i10s? These Indian i10s have ABS, but no ESP, which is a cost-saving issue that's bedevilled the compact car segment in South Africa for years.
The truth is that marketing people know that a touchscreen infotainment system, which costs about the same as an ESP system, will appeal to buyers on a budget. And that's why they choose that as a standard feature, above crucial safety components like ESP. Justifiably, the absence of ESP loses manufacturer a lot of points, when evaluators do crash testing. As evidenced by the i10 scoring 0 stars in a late 2025 crash test for Global NCAP. Only having two airbags instead of six, didn't help its cause, either.
Remember, the i10 you buy locally might look like the European version, but it's not. It's actually slightly larger and is a Grand i10. Although it's bigger, it also features less ultra-high-strength steel in its safety structure, especially in the floor. That is part of the reason why Indian-made i10s perform so poorly in crash tests compared to European-spec i10s, which use more ultra-high-strength steel and have ESP as standard.
