Small cars set the pace in crash test results
12 June 2007
Small cars have out-performed a number of large cars in the latest round of crash tests carried out by ANCAP, the Australian New Car Assessment Program.
The Ford Focus XR5, Toyota Corolla (hatch and sedan), Peugeot 207 and the Mini Cooper all scored five stars in Euro NCAP testing while the larger Toyota Aurion, Toyota Camry, Mitsubishi 380, Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon all scored four stars.
"The recent ANCAP tests are good news for new car buyers with all but two of the passenger vehicles tested gaining four stars or more," said RAC Executive Manager Member Advocacy David Moir.
"Small cars have traditionally been seen as less safe than large cars so these results are positive especially given the high price of fuel and the increase in volume of new small car sales in WA."
However it was not good news in the commercial van class where the Mitsubishi Express was rated with just one star.
"Commercial vans are used by many businesses and they often cover more kilometres in a year than privately owned vehicles," said Mr Moir.
"Given improvements in vehicle safety over the last five years, to be rated with just one star is extremely poor," said Mr Moir.
There was better news for Mitsubishi with its Triton 2WD Ute improving to a four star rating in the recent results from two stars when the previous model was tested last year.
The news was also positive for Australia's car manufacturers with increased safety resulting in the Australian made Aurion, Camry, Commodore, Falcon and Mitsubishi 380 all achieving a four star rating.
Other five star rated cars included the VW Passat, Volvo C30, Honda Legend and the Peugeot 207CC, while the Hyundai Accent was rated with only three stars and the Chrysler Voyager (Diesel) just two.
Pedestrian tests on the Suzuki Grand Vitara, Toyota Corolla, Peugeot 207, Suzuki SX4 and Honda Legend resulted in three stars out of four, the Mitsubishi Outlander, Honda CR-V, Holden Captiva, Audi Q7, Ford Focus, VW Passat, Hyundai Sonata, Citroën Picasso, and BMW Mini gave two star results, with the Kia Magentis, Volvo C30 and Land Rover Freelander 2, producing one star results.
"It is encouraging to see that performance in the pedestrian crash tests is improving with the large number of vehicles gaining three stars out of a possible four," said Mr Moir.
Result comparisons can be viewed in the downloadable version of this media release below.
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