If You've Vacationed in Mexico it's Likely You Have Ridden in this Deathtrap; It's Finally Been Axed by Nissan

If it wasn’t for tighter safety regulations, Nissan would still be selling a deathtrap. It’s called the Nissan Tsuru and it was the brand’s top selling model in Mexico and South America for decades. The key word is was, because it’s no longer being sold. It’s because it wasn’t able to meet Mexico’s stricter safety regulations for new cars.

Nissan Mexico’s top boss just gave it the axe, and it’s a good thing. The Tsuru started out as a Nissan Sentra in 1991 and was a popular compact car is Mexico and South America. Many were sold to taxi companies and if you’ve been in 
Mexico as a tourist, you’ve probably ridden in one.

It turns out the compact car has one of the worst safety ratings on the planet. That’s a scary thought if you know how taxi drivers navigate through busy Latin American streets. Unfortunately, Mexico and other South American countries don’t have strict safety standards like the U.S., Europe and Japan. But that seems to be changing.

While the U.S., through the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), constantly revises its car safety standards, Mexico and other Latin American countries don’t. As part of the Global European New Car Assessment Program’s (NCAP) No Zero Star Cars initiative, these models are being singled out in an effort to get automakers to stop selling these inexpensive deathtraps.

Watch the video below and it will give you nightmares if you’ve ridden in one these Tsuru compacts south of the border. It shows a crash test between a 2015 Nissan Tsuru and a 2016 Nissan Versa, the former of which is not up to standards for sale in the U.S., and the new Versa which passes U.S. safety standards and can be legally sold. The results are a bit scary.

Source: Nissan

Photo: Nissan Mexico