A Chery SUV's whole rear axle ended up on the road. What do we know?

Two back wheels sit on the tar, still joined by a steel bar. The car they belong to sits a metre away.

It is a black Chery SUV on Malaysian plates, stopped under a highway flyover. A Caltex petrol station is behind it. A Grab delivery rider slows down to look. The back of the SUV rests low on the road with nothing under it.

Those photos have spread around the world this week. One post on 7 October passed 1.4 million views in two days. It warned Chinese car owners to look away and said the rear axle "appears to separate from the car."

The account that posted it sells BMWs in Nigeria, so it is not exactly neutral. But the photos are real, and so is the worry they started.

What happened to the Chery in the photos?

Here is what the pictures show. The car's whole rear axle came away from the body. That is the steel beam that carries both back wheels. It lies on the road with its brake cables and sensor wires snapped and trailing.

The plates show the car is registered in Johor, the Malaysian state just across from Singapore.

What the photos do not show is the cause. We could not find a report from Malaysian police, Chery Malaysia or the country's road transport department (JPJ) about this car by 9 October. We do not know the exact model, the date or what happened just before. A crash, a pothole, a repair gone wrong or a factory fault could all leave a car looking like this. Until someone official says, the cause is open.

That has not stopped people from guessing. Many in the replies are sure it is a factory fault. Others think the car hit something first. Some joked about where the rest of the car went.

Has a Chery rear axle broken before?

Yes, and in the same country.

In April 2024, a Malaysian owner said the rear left axle of her Chery Omoda 5 snapped while she was driving. She said she had not hit a bump or a pothole and had never been in an accident. Her car had done less than 7,000 km. Her dashcam video and photos went viral, and she said there was rust between the joints of the broken part.

Chery Malaysia said it had contacted her and taken the car to a service centre for "a thorough inspection and investigation." It gave her a courtesy car while it looked into it.

Photo: JustAnotherCarDesigner / Wikimedia Commons, CC0

Within days the story grew. Chery found that the fault was not one bad car. It was a batch.

Why did the Omoda 5 rear axle break?

Chery Malaysia traced it to a supplier that makes the rear axle. During an upgrade at that factory, a worn tip on a welding robot was replaced. The machine was then set up wrong, so some welds on the axle were weak.

The company said 60 cars built on 15 August 2023 were directly affected. To be safe, it called back every Omoda 5 built from 14 to 17 August 2023. That came to 600 cars.

The JPJ issued a recall notice and said it would watch the work closely. By 7 June 2024, 592 of the 600 cars had been checked, according to the JPJ. Chery replaced the parts for free. The Sun Malaysia later reported that a similar recall covered 420 Omoda 5 cars in Indonesia.

The owner who started it said in July 2024 that her complaint had been settled.

Whether the car in this week's photos has anything to do with that old batch, nobody has said.

What is a rear axle, and can it really fall off?

On many small SUVs and hatchbacks, the two back wheels hang off one piece of steel. Mechanics call it a twist beam or torsion beam. It is cheap, light and strong, and it bolts to the car's body at two points.

Photo: Soyuz72 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

That design is why the photos look so strange. When one of these axles comes loose, it does not drop one wheel. Both wheels can leave together, still joined, like a little trailer.

Car makers around the world use this layout. A failure like this is rare for any brand, which is why a picture of one travels so fast.

Are Chery cars safe to drive in South Africa?

This matters a lot in South Africa, because Chery is now one of the biggest names on our roads.

In the first three months of 2026, the Chery group sold 16,094 new cars in South Africa, according to a TransUnion report cited by TimesLIVE. That group includes Chery, Jetour, Omoda and Jaecoo. Chinese brands now make up more than 19% of new passenger and light commercial vehicles sold here. That is close to one in five.

Buyers like the low prices and the big screens. With petrol at about R30 a litre, every rand saved on a new car counts. Our earlier look at how far China's reach goes in South Africa shows how quickly Chinese brands have moved in.

Photo: Alexander Migl / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

South Africa has had its own viral Chery scare. A crashed Tiggo 4 Pro went around social media, and some people linked it to rear axle worries. Chery South Africa said that case was not related to the Malaysian one.

No recall linked to this week's photos has been announced in South Africa or Malaysia.

How do I check if my Chery has a recall?

Every car has a 17-character code called the VIN, or vehicle identification number. You will find it on your licence disc, your registration papers and usually at the bottom of the windscreen on the driver's side.

That number is all a dealer needs. In Malaysia, Chery set up a page on its website where owners type in the VIN to see if their car is part of a recall. Its careline is 03-2771 7070.

In South Africa, call or visit any Chery dealer and ask them to run your VIN for open recalls and service updates. It takes a few minutes and costs nothing. If a part needs replacing under a recall, the maker pays for it.

Listen to your car too. A clunk from the back over bumps, a car that pulls to one side or a tyre that wears unevenly can all point to a problem under the car. Get it on a lift before it gets worse.

The photos from Johor will keep doing the rounds until someone explains them. Your own answer is quicker than that. It is printed on your licence disc right now.