MG 3 suffers ‘serious’ driver’s seat failure in Euro NCAP crash test

The MG 3 supermini has suffered a ‘serious’ driver’s seat failure in the latest Euro NCAP crash tests.

Euro NCAP stands for ‘European New Car Assessment Programme’ and puts the latest cars through several different crash tests to see how safe they are, and then scores them out of a potential five stars.

During the frontal offset crash test, the Euro NCAP engineers found that the Chinese supermini’s driver’s seat latching mechanism failed, causing the whole seat to twist partway through the impact. The movement led to extreme forces being put on the crash dummy’s right leg, with the car being marked as ‘poor’ for lower-body protection.

Euro NCAP informed MG of the defect, which defended the case that the seat was improperly latched before the test. However, the driver’s seat was found to be correctly positioned, and now the Chinese manufacturer is working on improving the design of the seat latch mechanism to ensure it remains intact in the event of an accident.

Dr.Aled Williams, programme director at Euro NCAP, said: “Euro NCAP conducts independent safety testing of new cars so that consumers can be fully informed about how well a model is likely to protect them on the road. It is troubling to find a car on sale in 2025 with a fundamental weakness in its seat latching mechanism, an essential part of the car’s occupant restraint system.

“This fault has been reported to the relevant Type-Approval authorities so consideration can be given as to whether a vehicle recall should be issued.”

He added: “For that reason, we would recommend that consumers consider alternatives to the MG 3.”

The MG 3 scored four out of five stars in the latest Euro NCAP safety tests, with this driver’s seat failure its biggest concern, overall.