You definitely don’t want to be in an accident in the Chinese-made Steed 5 pickup. You’ll know why once you watch the crash test. You can see the Steed 5 fold up like a paper doll in this Global New Car Assessment Programme crash test. Global NCAP gave the Steed 5 pickup a “0 Stars” safety score. How come these are built so flimsy?

“First off, the Steed 5 is not imported into the US

First off, they’re not imported into the US. But they are imported into countries where a less expensive car or truck is needed. In Africa, for example, this pickup sells for $14,627. But, for that price, a lot of safety features we take for granted here in the US are not available on the Steed 5. And especially safety features are pretty limited. 

How limited you may ask? First, there are no airbags. None. There is also no ABS braking system. Even the seat belts, which it has, are a bit compromised. Looking over the safety specs they don’t contain pre-tensioners. But for children, it at least scores “One Star.” We can only imagine this is because children weigh less so there is less mass thrusting a small child forward.

When areas of the human body are broken down as to crash severity the head, legs, and feet are rated as having “poor” protection. The torso is one notch up at a “weak” rating. The passenger breakdown scored better partly because they are not being impaled onto a steering wheel and column. 

The Steed 5 comes with leather upholstery, heated seats, alloy wheels, and more

But it’s not a complete stripper. It comes with leather upholstery, heated seats, alloy wheels, air conditioning, and USB plugs. For $2,600 more you can add a hard bed cover, bed liner, chrome sidebar protectors, and parking sensors. The Autocar editors weren’t exactly kind when describing the interior. “Inside, the plastics are hard and everything feels built down to a cost-and it’s questionable as to whether it and the rest of the Steed would endure regular hard use.”

The Steed is the first Chinese-made vehicle sold in the UK. The UK’s Autocar comments  overall in a statement “the Steed is a cheap and practical double-cab pickup but it’s hindered by a poor powertrain and questionable build quality.” Yeeeooow. Not exactly an encouraging endorsement. 

“The Steed has merits but it’s worth spending more to buy one of the more popular alternatives.”

It further says, “The Steed has some merits but it’s worth spending more to buy one of the more popular alternatives.” It concludes with this rejoinder, “For most, however, a used example of a more mainstream option, like the Toyota Hilux or even the SsangYong Korando Sports would be a much wiser investment-especially if you intend to use your pickup on a regular basis or for longer trips.”

So there you have it; the fun tale of a new pickup with as poor of a review as we’ve seen-or written. We have been fairly impressed with the Chinese-made vehicles we’ve seen thus far. But they have all been prototypes and probably hand-built. Production versions may be an entirely different proposition.