EuroNCAP awards 10 new cars five-star rating, Cruze ‘near perfect’ in adult occupant test
November 26, 2009 by Matt Brogan
Euro NCAP (New Car Assessment Program) results released today reveal 10 new cars have been awarded the maximum five-star safety rating.
But Euro NCAP Secretary General, Dr Michiel van Ratingen, said new car customers should not make presumptions about a car’s safety performance simply because of its brand name, following the Toyota Urban Cruiser’s three-star rating.
“The result from Toyota is disappointing, but in 2010, we predict further results like these as Euro NCAP’s next stage of the rating scheme kicks in and requirements become even tougher.”
The only other car not to achieve the maximum five stars was the Chevrolet Spark which had to settle for four because electronic stability control is not standard on any model variant.
But van Ratingen said the result was an enormous improvement from 2006 when the Chevrolet Aveo managed just one star.
“We congratulate Chevrolet. The company has bounced back with two cars that have a commendable level of safety performance.”
The other being the Cruze, which achieved a near perfect 96 per cent score for ‘adult occupant’ protection.
Among the other five-star cars was the BMW X1, Citroen DS3, Infiniti FX, Mazda3, Mercedes E-Class and GLK, Opel Astra, Peugeot 5008 and the Volkswagen Scirocco.
by Tim Beissmann
Print it: 
Which “Cruze” got the 96% rating? Chevy Cruze? Is this the same as the Holden Cruze sedan???
Yes, same car.
Chevrolet Aveo – otherwise known as the Holden Barina. Chevy Cruze and Holden Cruze are the same car builtout of the same GM DAT factory in Korea.
Well done CA to get this up nice and quick, considering the press release was issued at 6am this morning. Ouch for Toyota with the Urban Cruiser, they must’ve rushed it through without enough R&D. Pretty impressive result for the Daewoo Cruze. Holden will be all smug about it now, can’t wait for the usual boring advertising.
Test the Cruze again next year and it’ll only be 4 stars, because of insufficiant protection to pedestians under new 2010 ratings.
The Europeans already do that! The result was 34%. The edge of the bonnet let it down. Something the Holden engineers could address?
… which is a fail from 1 Jan 2010, and only 4 stars.
Holden engineers haven’t touched the Cruze so far, why would THEY address that? GMDAT engineers will look at it next update.
Holden will address this when they start making it as they dont want to lose that key advertising line of everymodel in our local range is now Five star.
agreeed…
gee,
its a harsh penalty to reduce a car’s star rating simply because of what it MAY do a pedestian.the star crash rating should only be to do with the occupant safety.a kangeroo can’t discriminate about what car it crashes into(neither a grog/drug/ipod effected drongo…)
I thought the holden cruze was being built here in australia next year and they were going to bring out a coupe as well next year also built here.
they said maybe to the coupe but they will definetly build a hatch and sedan
Hatch will be buit here, but the sedan will continue to be imported from the Daewoo plant in Korea.
Thats what I still believe too.
Hatch only from Aus
Oh well either way the Cruze line up is going to get bigger.
I love how people refer to Daewoo as GM DAT – like thats going to somehow erase the nightmare of DAEWOO? That bad taste is going to take a while to wash away.
People just call it by the name of the company.
I love how people have to live in the past to drag up negative comments.
Its 2009 – Korea can now make some very good cars.
Yup, Holden means a great deal to South Korea….
Of course they would Holden has a 51% share in GM DAT, given to them by GM to watch over GM DAT
I love how people lump all Korean car manufacturers into the same basket. Hyundai and Kia make some great cars these days, and have been for about 5 years now. Even the older Hyundais were reliable but basic. Daewoo on the other hand are and always have been absolute rubbish, and I have a feeling a lot of it comes from the Holden drivetrain as a lot of the common problems seemed to be shared with the Vectra and Astra of the same vintage. Cruze seems like a step in the right direction but it will take a few generations of acceptable cars like the Cruze to flush away the bad memories.
The GLK and Scirocco have been around for a while, how come they are just testing them now?
The mazda 3 has nearly been out 12 months too…..
I thought the very same in questioning why some of those models hadnt been tested yet
That miss by Toyota for the Urban Cruiser will cost them dearly, puts me off it straight away. I personally think it is a big consideration when buying a car, frustratingly it is never made priminet when buying a 2nd hand car. It should be..
gah “prominent”
very impressived by korean daewoo engineering