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2017 Land Rover Discovery scores five-star ANCAP rating, despite head contact risk – UPDATE

The 2017 Land Rover Discovery has been awarded a full five-star safety rating by independent crash-testing authority ANCAP this week.


Following the Discovery's New Zealand release in May and in advance of its Australian market launch this week, ANCAP has released the SUV's crash ratings based on tests conducted by its European equivalent, Euro NCAP.

The British SUV managed 34.25 out of 38 for adult occupant protection (90 per cent), 39.45 out of 48 for child occupant protection (80 per cent), and 31.67 out of 42 for pedestrian protection (75 per cent).

Chief Executive Officer at ANCAP, James Goodwin, said: "The Discovery earned its 5 star safety rating showing strengths in structure, design and equipment".

"Crash test dummy readings indicated good levels of protection of all critical body regions in the side impact test as well as the more severe side pole test."

"Protection of the knees and femurs for both the driver and passenger in the frontal offset test was also good," he added.

However, Goodwin noted there was insufficient pressure in the driver's airbag during testing, which saw the dummy's head contact the steering wheel, and a consequential penalty applied in the scoring - though not to the same extent as the Ford Mustang.

The deduction was described in the report as "unstable contact with driver airbag".

In response to a request for further details on the above, Goodwin told CarAdvice today: “The scores achieved by the Land Rover Discovery were strong and the injury risk posed, very low. The dummy data showed a small peak in acceleration of the driver dummy’s head late in the crash yet this contact was not severe enough to affect the injury score.

"However, contact such as this indicates performance may be reduced in a different crash scenario and therefore a subsequent penalty was applied to the score. The score, with the penalty applied, was well within the 5 star threshold.”

The Discovery received praise for its inclusion of all three grades of autonomous emergency braking (AEB); city, interurban and vulnerable road user (pedestrian) as standard equipment.

Other standard safety features include curtain airbags across all three rows of seating, manual speed limiter and emergency stop signal.

The intelligent speed limiting system available for European models is not offered locally.

ANCAP's five-star safety rating for the 2017 Discovery applies to all Australian and New Zealand variants, a notable improvement on the previous-generation model - which was unrated.

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