Stop selling car, says watchdog

A new Holden Barina that fared poorly in recent Australasian crash tests should be withdrawn from sale until it is improved, Consumer magazine says.

Holden has dismissed the criticism as scaremongering, saying a United States test rated the Barina much higher.

Consumer said the Australasian rating, issued by Ancap (Australasian new car assessment programme), was a drop of two stars from the earlier model Barina, which got four stars out of five.

All other similar sized cars tested got between three and five stars.

"Holden has enormous design resources to draw upon [through the huge multinational General Motors], so it's astonishing that they've managed to make this car perform worse than its predecessors," the magazine said.

It said the car retails from $16,990 and appeared to have been made to a price.

"We think the Holden Barina should be withdrawn from sale until it's improved," it said.

Land Transport New Zealand's website said the Barina was actually a rebadged Daewoo Kalos.

It said people needed to be aware it was completely different from the earlier model Barina.

"It is built in a different country and it does not provide the same level of occupant protection in crash testing as the previous model."

Holden New Zealand corporate affairs manager Brodie McClellan labelled the watchdog's advice "scaremongering tactics".

"The model they are referring to is sold in over 95 countries and meets the legislated safety requirements in each one of those countries, including New Zealand," she said.