Holden Barina achieves four-star ANCAP rating
November 6, 2008 by Matt Brogan
In what is a far cry from the original TK Barina’s woeful two-star rating, Holden today acknowledged ANCAP’s confirmation of a four-star crash rating for the upgraded 2009 model year (or TK9) Barina three-door hatchback.
The result reflects structural improvements and the addition of side impact airbags as standard across the updated Barina hatchback range (result does not apply to sedan models), which was introduced in August
The bodyshell has been enhanced with three clearly defined load paths designed to better absorb the impact of an offset front-end collision and support the entire structure of the passenger cell over a larger area.
High-strength steel has been used to reinforce the B-pillar and the dual side impact airbags (driver and passenger) extend upwards to provide head and thorax protection.
GM Holden Executive Director – Sales, Marketing and Aftersales, Alan Batey said the ANCAP result was welcome as Barina was an important and significant vehicle for Holden in the small car market.
“There has been a very positive response to the new Barina’s styling and this announcement confirms the effectiveness of our various safety improvements,” Mr Batey said.
The Barina hatchback and sedan is sold in over 120 markets around the world, predominantly as the Chevrolet Aveo. The Barina nameplate has been part of the Holden line up since 1985 when the Suzuki based MB Barina went on sale.
Holden has sold more than 34,000 of the current model TK Barina since its Australian launch in 2005.
Print it: 
Thats a significant improvement.
For the type of money Holden is offering this car for, it almost makes it a contender in this market again.
I wouldn’t have touched the old one with that crash rating.
Good work Daewoo it is not so much of a death trap now.
Still wouldn’t touch one though with all the better cars available in this class!
Maybe if it was a choice between this and a Proton.
Still not the budget supermini to buy I don’t think – that would be the Hyundai Getz. And the slightly more expensive supermini to buy will be the Mazda 2 or Suzuki Swift. I suppose at least you won’t see kids speeding in them anymore and think “yep, there gonna die.”
By memory the Beep Beep Bagrina sedan was a woeful one and a ½ star special when it was first tested in Europe. I wonder if the sedan has been improved? What’s the bet Holden are spending $$$ where possible with paid columns trying to convince the general public that their dearly loved Bagrina isn’t such a death trap now? CA, did GM throw $$$ at you for this article?
VW Freak – they acknowledged a problem and significantly improved it. What the hell more do you want? Go away…
They should never have released the previous model without making it safe first.
However, good on them for doing the work and spending the money to resolve the problem. It still may not be best in class, but it is good value for money now.
It gives a glimpse of the kind of improvements we can expect from the next gen GM designed models like Cruze.
Good that Holden have improved this vehicle.
But it does NOT sell all that well, people are smarter now, they know its a elcheapo Daewoo
Yes, they should like Ford, be importing the premium Euro OPEL/VAUXHALL job instead.Fitted with rear headrests and 3x lap/sash rear belts!
Cheers
F-0
Rememer, this is a car that is sold in over 120 markets as stated in the article, mainly as a chev.
Holden are purely benefactors in this safety upgrade and not the ‘Implementors’!
Though i’m no fan of this barina points to holden (well GMDAT really) for making this level of improvement. At least now the car meets basic safety levels.
Unfortunately it doesn’t bring the rest of the car really up to standard in many area, nor does its minor styling improvement. The use of side airbags standard wouldn’t make much difference to its 4 stars but it shows they are still off the pace. Most cars in the light car category released recently are 5 stars with side airbags, 4 stars without (mazda 2 etc.). Once again holden is playing catchup with their korean sourced cars.
well with the jazz going down in price…no contention
…..and the only reason a jazz isnt 5 stars is the lack of esc.
Can I play the Sceptic here??? Please????
Funny how when the FG got 5*s GM-H said they weren’t worried about ANCAP ratings and that their cars were safe. They even tried to rebuff the Barina 1 1/2*s whilst happily bragging about Astra’s 5* rating in their TV commercials…..
But seriously good on them for making the change. Hate the new grille though.
Just out of curiosity, is anybody else incredibly pissed off by the new barina television commercial? “happiness is contageous, so we put a big smile on the barinas face”. Correction Holden: some unknown designer in Korea put a (rather tacky) big smile on it’s face. “It has a big hearted engine” and look, there’s a short video clip of a cute little dog, just think how lovely the car must be then. CA, if you find yourselves talking to someone high up at Holden one day, ask why in all their ads they try to emphasize that Holden made these changes when they had nothing to do with it. It seems all Holden does these days is sign import forms and send badges over to Korea.
No ABS as standard! Is the Barina in a class of its’ own?
I’ve said for some time now that Daewoo will follow in the footsteps of [its cross town rival] Hyundai and gradually start to make reasonably good looking and safer cars
In fact the front end of the new Barina looks like a Hyundai Accent.
4 Stars eh…. So what’s the biggest death trap in terms of Hatchbacks on Australian Roads now then?
wheelnut,
that would be mr colt,mr rio,and mr accent(per ancap test results).pity abs is not standard.holden should do a “viva”and only bring in the abs models.speaking of viva,it’s now cheaper than barina 4/5dr this month…go figure?
Wheelnut Says:
November 6th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
“4 Stars eh…. So what’s the biggest death trap in terms of Hatchbacks on Australian Roads now then?”
They’re not here yet, but when they do, anything Chinese will answer that question.
Shame they don’t have ABS standard!
I like the new grill and front bumper on the new barina. Better than the old barina front end. But I don’t like the new rear bumper.
So how stong was the old steel used on the barina? Pretty weak.
Therefore, does that mean that the old TK Barina has very bad resale? I guess so, hey?
^I think the old TK was made out of recycled paper :P, According to redbook, the resale of the Barina is pretty high, retaining about 66% of its value in 3 years time. About the same as a Mazda 2 or Toyota Yaris, which I don’t understand. The Barina is as prehistoric as the dinosaurs.
I don’t think it makes a squat of difference to buyers of this car. Most Holden buyers don’t shop around – a car could have a 1 star crash rating, but as long as it has the beloved lion badge on the grill then it will sell.
Phillip – same can be said for Toyota too you know.
Nonetheless for the new Daewoo to get a 4 star safety rating compared to last years model shows how much the Barina has improved…. particularly when you consider ANCrAP have made their assessment criteria more stringent than before.. and that is something they [Holden] should be commended for,
What I can never understand is that I believe EuroNCAP gave the Daewoo Lanos two and a half stars in 1998, so why is the was the Barina so crap?
Great step up from previous model! Unlike 99% on here Iam not a pseudo one car enthusiast. It looks great now from front and this Korea bashing people go on with is BS…. in long term with more input from Holden it will work! Congrats HOLDEN!
Phillip………..you comment is self absorbed as same can be said for Toyota. Smell reality mate as Wheelnut is right!
Maybe you should focus on where Hilux and Corolla come from instead of focussing on Korea……as to be frank that is an utter BS shallow viewpoint! All companies do it and build all over the place…..so Holden is “no” different on that front and either is Toyota!
Are Holden going to recall all previous 2-star Barinas and replace them with the newer 4-star variants. The can’t have been that many of them sold.
I kind of agree with Philip though. The people who bought this car in the past clearly didnt research very hard. No ABS as standard is woeful, once you factor in the 1000$ or whatever it is to get it you may as well get a proer car from the other manufacturers.
When I bought my car, just for kicks i went and drove the Barina. I asked the dealer… So hows the safety on this compared to say a Yaris… he said yea its very good… I was laughing on the inside. what a load of bs. I really should have laughed in his face.
I went and got the Yaris with the full safety pack which was 5 Stars at the time (not anymore as the rules have changed for ESP etc) and that was the only car that was in my price range to have 5 stars.
But I wish i waited a few months for th Mazda 2. Much nicer car.
I agree NM, you probably don’t remember the article in a prominant Magazine about the Daewoo Leganza 2.0l road test where they complained about the coarseness of the engine, the peaky power production and the notchiness of the 5 speed, but 6 pages prior to it gave the 2.0l Vectra engines and gearbox a glowing report.
Further more, the same robots that build the Koreans (most made by the Koreans) are building Mercedes, Lexus and so forth. Kinda funny isn’t it that the item actually building the worlds best cars is built by those that make the supposed worst…
OK – here’s a bit of a conundrum……
The most relevant safety feature in any car is the driver, closely followed by the drivers in other cars on the road, of course.
The 4 star rating of the new Barina has made me think hard about what all this really means to the driver and passengers in the car. What does 4 star mean in terms of somparative safety and integrity of a vehicle?
My Vectra C CDXi has a Euro NCAP 4 star rating, even with 6 ‘bags, ABS/EBD/EBA/CBC/TC/ESP+ and a bunch of other supplementary restraints. How well this star rating protects me is the question I would like answered.
Am I equally as well protected from similar impacts in a 4 star TK9 Barina, with only 4 ‘bags or a a star Viva with just 4 ‘bags and no ABS/ESP?, Or am I more vulnerable in my Vec than in a 4 star VE Commodore with 6 bags and all the electonic active and supplementary safety features?
Is a 5 star Astra as safe as a 5 star Falcon?
All the NCAP star ratings are lab generated and a good guide to crash protection of certain types. Real world crash data has no doubt contributed to the design integrity of all-new chassis technology (ie VE/new Camry/Aurion etc) but how do you compare apples with apples?
The 4 star Camry/Aurion had a higher overall points rating than the VE when tested yet I would think the integrity of the passenger cell in the VE is greater.
Perhaps the NCAP rating system should be broken down into component parts…..maybe independent ratings on the effectiveness of
• active safety (on-the-road tests etc)
• crash avoidance technologies ESP/ABS etc)
• passive features (supplementary restraints)
• crashworthiness (chassis integrity/lab tests etc)
The current Series II Epica has a 4 star Euro NCAP rating, and I think a 5 star Korean NCAP assessment. There’s no doubt it has better crash avoidance and passive safety features than the equally (Euro NCAP) rated Viva. There’s no doubt as well that with its equal rating to the VE Commodore, it would not perform as well in impact tests.
So, I s’pose I’m no clearer in this than anyone else. The JF Viva, ZC Vectra, EP Epica and VE (also VT-VZ) Commodore all have 4 NCAP stars but huge discrepencies in active/passive/supplementary and chassis safety design & technologies.
Any input on this is welcome!
Sean -I think that despite being rather handy information the ANCrAP crash test ratings would be fairly low on most peoples lists of features etc when buying a new car.
The list would more likely go: Airbags; ABS; T/C; ESP; EBD; C/C AirCon….
One reason is as you pointed out because of the difference and discrepancies between Australia and Europe not to mention makes and models..
The ANCrAP assessment schedule and scoring system is rather complicated.. whereas Joe Average can walk into a showroom and clearly see that a particular car has 6 airbags whilst its direct rival from another make only has 4 – that in itself helps more people make the decision as to what car to buy much easier than the ANCrAP tests.
Then there are all the other features on their list that a particular car may or may not have compared to its rivals.. the more features that a car has that are on the list the more likely people are to buy it.
My point is People tend to buy the car which is most suitable to their needs most practical etc, Besides most modern cars have enough safety devices to help avoid an accident.. the main one being an intelligent alert and responsive driver
My theory is if the ANCrAP tests are SO important to you you should buy a Sherman Tank – simple!
sean,
ncap is all about the crash,and how the “dummy”fared..doesn’t matter how many airbags,or why it crashed.at the end of the day,the amount of trauma experienced by the dummy classes the star rating.bare in mind this offset frontal crash and side impact test is but a handfull of possible crash outcomes,even the size of the dummy will alter outcomes(i think holden had 70 different dummys in v.e.testing).a number of people recently on this site have waged war as to what makes a car achieve it’s star rating,but its all about the dummy…as far as sorting out what car to buy,look at what safety features you’ve got allready,plus 1 star if possible…
Yeh some of those daweos are shocking i would not let any of my family or friends buy one of these holdens.The sales men try covering it all up buy saying its safe its got 4 air bags abs so on so on.Yeh like thats going to help you when driver is in the back seat with the motor on your lap The crap sales men spin you
Also u dont need any crash testing to spot something is very wrong with these holdens have u seen the videos thay fold up like a can.Very scary to sell cars like this and know about it just to save a buck.What dose that tell you and thay just try cover it up and confuse the issue.The simple answear is just avoid these holdens and get the wayyyyy much better other cars out there
quite an improvement.
But still a Daewoo.
Good job Holden! I love this car its so stylish and funky. Perfect for a first car for somebody like me or any other young person.
^^ You’re kidding right? Surely you’re being sarcastic?