Foreign brands not happy with Korean safety tests

By Kim Tae-gyu

The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs (MLTM) announced last month its safety tests on a dozen passenger cars unveiled during the past year including both favorite domestic and overseas brands.

The results: All six models from Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group, the Korean brand, were picked as the “Safest Cars of the Year,” garnering outstanding scores across the board.

By contrast, vehicles from Mercedes-Benz and Audi were ranked bottom along with those of Renault Samsung Motors, betraying the general belief that imported large-sized sedans are safer.

“We took into consideration a set of criteria encompassing various manners of collisions, seating, braking systems and driving overturn safety to come up with the final scores,” an MLTM official said.

“Only those that got the highest five stars in head-on and broadside collision tests as well as scoring more than 50 points on a 54-point scale were selected as the safest cars. A total of six vehicles made the cut with all of them from the Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group.”

As the nation’s largest automaker and the global No. 5, Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group is one of the foremost conglomerates here.

The K7 from Kia Motors topped the podium with 53.7 points followed by the Sonata and Avante from Hyundai Motor with 53.6 points and 53.4 points, respectively.

The K5 of Kia came in at the fourth slot trailed by the Seoul-based entity’s two sports utility vehicles — the Sportage and Tucson — with 50.6 points and 50.3 points, respectively.