Brilliance Jinbei, a unit of Brilliance China Automotive Holdings, achieved a rating of only one star out of five in a recent crash test for its BS6 sedan by Germany's ADAC auto club, making headlines in German newspapers.

The Chinese automaker, which secured a deal last year to sell 158,000 sedans to Europe over the next five years, including the BS6 mid-range sedan, said in a statement late today that German media were "viciously playing up" the ADAC test results.

It noted that the BS6 had already passed the ECE safety test, mandatory for entry into the European market, as well as the voluntary NCAP test.

Brilliance added that its European distributor HSO had expressed confidence it would be able sell the vehicles in Europe after learning about the ADAC test results and that it would continue to improve the BS6's safety standards with ADAC's help.

"We have reached an initial agreement with ADAC to cooperate on this matter. We expect to get three stars for the NCAP test within a year," it said.

After making inroads into developing markets, many Chinese automakers, including Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. and Chery Automobile Co., are now eyeing mature markets in Europe and North America, hoping to emulate the global success of Toyota Motor Corp.

But the path has not been smooth.

Jiangling Motors Group's sports utility vehicle Landwind failed an ADAC crash test in 2005, fuelling doubts about the reliability of Chinese-made vehicles.

Brilliance said it was prepared to deal with difficulties in its move overseas, as Japanese and Korean car makers did, and that the poor test results for the BS6 were part of the learning process.