Holden Volt, Renault Megane, Audi A3 and Volvo V40 get 5-star NCAP safety rating | CarAdvice

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Holden Volt, Renault Megane, Audi A3 and Volvo V40 get 5-star NCAP safety rating

VOLVO V40
By Tim Beissmann
FIND DEALS

The Holden Volt plug-in hybrid is among a group of four vehicles to earn a five-star safety rating from the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) in the latest round of assessments, joining five other vehicles tested by Euro NCAP to also achieve the maximum safety rating.

Among those tested overseas was the all-new Volvo V40 hatch, which achieved the best overall result ever record by Euro NCAP. The V40, which is set to launch in Australia in the first quarter of 2013, set new benchmarks in the adult occupant protection and pedestrian protection tests, and scored the maximum 100 per cent rating for its safety assist technologies.

Joining the Volt in ANCAP’s five-star club was the Renault Megane, Audi Q3 and Nissan Juke, while the Suzuki Splash earned a four-star rating.

The Juke and the Splash are both available in New Zealand, and while there are no plans to introduce the compact Suzuki to Australia, Nissan’s quirky crossover is believed to be all but locked in for our market, with a launch expected sometime in 2013.

Earning five stars alongside the Volvo in Euro NCAP’s testing was the new Audi A3, Ford B-Max, Kia Cee’d and the Renault Clio, while the Isuzu D-Max ute earned four stars.

Although the D-Max missed the maximum five-star rating – a side effect of failing to reach a 60 per cent score for pedestrian protection (it scored 51 per cent) – Euro NCAP praised Isuzu for its improvement over the previous model, which scored just one star for pedestrian protection and two stars for adult occupant protection.

The Holden Volt became the second ‘electric vehicle’ to earn ANCAP’s five-star safety rating, following the Nissan Leaf from 2011.

Launching in Australia this week before officially going on sale on November 1, the Volt is equipped with eight airbags (dual front, side, curtains and knee airbags), as well as lane departure warning, forward collision alert, rear-view camera and intelligent seatbelt reminders for all passengers.


 

  • gt86.com.au

    Volvo’s are EPIC!

  • PROJET-L

    Saw a Vic registered Juke on the South Eastern Freeway last night.

    • Noddy of Toyland

      I hope you’re not juking.

  • Andrew Sherwood

    1) The increase in five-star cars is not doing anything to reduce bad driver behaviour on the roads. It is in fact giving people a greater ability to take risks because of the belief the 5 stars will give greater survival ability.
    2) Mainstream brands are getting top results (except Chinese ones) are getting 5 stars in their lineup without much trouble. In no part thanks to technology being passed down from premium European brands. Many mainstream brands are simply relying on more expensive and advanced technology to be patented and passed down without having to put in any effort of their own. This is something I do not like one bit because it is simply relying on other brands to put in the hard work and pass it down. There has been little to no new safety innovation in technology coming out from brands such as Hyundai or Toyota or Mazda or Honda etc for decades. All these brands and others have lots of money being churned out but simply cannot be interested to use some portion to develop a safety technology. If such brands cannot be interested enough to innovate then BMW or MB or Audi etc should not pass on technology to these companies and discourage such practices within the industry. If the Germans and Swedes put such a ban in place this may result in those who can’t afford expensive cars to miss out on vital safety equipment. This will in turn customers to determine whether their car company is really committed to safety or just interested in flogging it off the Europeans for a few thousand dollars.
    3) The scoring in the EuroNCAP program is flawed and needs to be reviewed. The Audi A3 should have also scored 98% in the frontal offset process. Yet this was only awarded to the Volvo V40. The frontal impact result for the adult impact in the Audi A3 a score of 15.4pts was given because of adequate protection for the chest of the adult and adequate protection of the right femur of the passenger occupant. In the Volvo V40 a score of 15.7 pts was given for the same test but there was only adequate protection for the chest and femur of the driver and left femur of the passenger. It would have been thought with less protection for the adult in the Volvo, it would have scored some less points to the Audi but in fact it scored more. How was this possible and no explanation in the summary seems to discuss this. The scoring regime therefore is flawed and possibly evidence of data manipulation, backroom deals and collusion because of EuroNCAP’s well known relationship with Volvo Cars.
    4) After Google displayed the Euro results last night around 11pm our time I was not surprised to read Tomas Bromberg gloating to journalists about Volvo’s performance. I find the arrogance coming from Volvo every year to be despicable and constantly putting down other manufacturers and trying to boss around governments and legislators to do what they want. The spin coming out last night regarding this latest car crash test was incredible not only putting themselves in glory but talking about their true commitment to safety. Volvo’s PR people really should get hired in Australia’s political parties they’d do a far better job. I can only hope something like the Toyota incident happens at Volvo because then they would have their safety image completely trashed and would never be able to recover from the damage. Certainly would put them in their proper place.

    • Chubbs

       1) 5 star crash protection is not meant to reduce bad behavior, it’s meant to protect you despite bad behavior.  What evidence do you have for your stated fact that safer cars have led to less safe driving?

      2) yes a 5 star rating is too easy – that’s why its really great to see the small overlap tests from iihs adding another dimension to the overall assessment of new cars.  How did that work out for Audi and Volvo?

      3) No. The A3 scored 95% for adult protection as this includes the side impact pole test where it also lost points to V40. You realise they actually measure the forces involved right? This means if all the V40s green scores were higher than the A3s green scores it could get more points overall, despite having more yellow scores.  This is not evidence of data manipulation – their protocols are published in detail and apply to all manufacturers. There are brands with much deeper pockets / more clout / bigger market share than volvo. Wouldn’t they complain if Volvo were manipulating results – or better yet wouldn’t they just pay bigger bribes?

      4) Are you really surprised that a manufacturer that just set a new record in euroNCAP wants to promote that fact?

    • Noddy of Toyland

      10/10 did not read.

  • Nick

    Andrew, BMW, Audi and MB lose all safety credibility with their obscene price gouging in Australia, putting the safer cars out of reach of most Australians 

  • Reggie

    They should bring the Suzuki Splash here. Nice little car.

    • Noddy of Toyland

      We have the Alto and Swift, I don’t think they would find space or demand in our market.

  • Save It For The Track

    Having to achieve a certain mark in pedestrian protection will now perhaps actually see less vehicles achieve ’5 stars’. The ANCAP rating is more and more not actually about how the vehicle protects its occupants, but how well it can score in a test. This will easily see a 4 star vehicle be as good (or potentially better) at actually protecting its occupants than a 5 star vehicle.

  • Zaccy16

    Lets hope they fixed the fire issue in the volt!

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Richard-Joash-Tan/100000351085371 Richard Joash Tan

      they already fixed that, you troll!

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Richard-Joash-Tan/100000351085371 Richard Joash Tan

      they already fixed that, you troll!