Renault’s Sandero Gets 4-Star Quality Rating

Iran Standards and Quality Inspection Company has released a new report on the quality of 41 locally-made cars and seven pickup trucks.

According to this month’s report, for the first time, a locally-made car, namely Renault’s Sandero, has earned a four-star ranking from ISQI.

The cars are ranked from one to a maximum of five stars. None of the cars made by Iranian auto manufacturers had received more than three stars in the past, local automotive website, Persian Khodro, announced on November 12.

Renault has signed a deal with the Industrial Development and Renovation Organization of Iran and is set to produce several models in Iran, including Sandero Stepway, a newer version of the model.

The upcoming collaboration with the Paris-based company might even boost the quality of vehicles produced in the country.

Although the Sandero reached a four-star rating for the first time, many of the other cars produced locally have not impressed the quality organization.

However, Sandero was not the only car to see an improvement, as according to the report, Iran’s auto industry witnessed other rating increases, with the Tiggo 5 and Peugeot 206 SD earning a new star and joining the three-star club.

The Ario, produced by SAIPA at the hotly disputed Bonro production plant, earned an extra star and had a two-star ranking. This is while 15 cars have a low one-star ranking.

Among the seven types of the pickup trucks assessed by ISQI, only the Dacia Logan Pickup, which is locally known as Tondar pickup earned three-stars and the rest have got only one star.

Since the implementation of the new quality assessment system, Iranian companies producing pickup trucks have done nothing to improve their products’ quality or at least their efforts have been futile.

The cars are classified in five price ranges from the lowest costing under 250 million rials ($7,143) to the costliest priced above 1 billion rials ($28,571).