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A Mixed Bag In Christmas Vehicle Safety Ratings


Vehicle Safety Ratings, Vehicle Safety, media release

Author: NRMA MediaDate: 04 December 2008

NSW Roads and Traffic Authority and NRMA Motoring & Services today released safety ratings for a range of new cars and utilities, revealing that just one vehicle achieved 5-stars.

The Holden Commodore Omega sedan achieved a 5-star rating but other Commodore models will not become eligible for the 5-star rating until Holden incorporates a passenger seat-belt reminder warning in their other variants throughout 2009.

The Ford Falcon Ute and Honda Jazz achieved a 4-star rating, while the Nissan Micra car, Nissan Navara D22 4WD and the Isuzu D-Max Utility 2WD and 4WD models have received a 3-star rating.

Director of the NSW Centre for Road Safety Dr Soames Job congratulated Holden on joining the Ford Falcon XT in achieving the 5-star milestone for an Australian-made car. He went on to say that the 3-star ratings for the Micra, Navara and D-Max were very disappointing, given the increasing number of 4 and 5-star vehicles available.

"ANCAP does not consider a 3-star rating to be good enough for consumers - new car buyers should expect good safety ratings as much as performance, and there is a wide range of 4 and 5-star safety rated vehicles on the Australian market today," Dr Job said.

"There was an issue with the lack of a front passenger seat belt reminder on the Commodore, but Holden has undertaken to incorporate these reminders into their production processes through 2009 to ensure other Commodore variants offer the same levels of protection. We encourage new car buyers of the variants to make sure these reminders are available when they make their purchase.

"Regrettably road crash fatality figures show that many drivers and passengers are failing to buckle up and are suffering the consequences."

NRMA vehicle specialist Jack Haley said the 4-star Honda Jazz base model with dual airbags performed well in crash tests but the 6-airbag variants were not eligible for 5 stars because they did not have Electronic Stability Control, (ESC), a proven life saving technology readily available in many new cars.

"ANCAP is still waiting for the breakthrough of a 5-star commercial vehicle so that trades people, couriers and other such vehicle users can have the same level of safety as company executives," Mr Haley said.

"Unfortunately pedestrians do not fare well in the latest round of results with the Commodore, the Navara and D-Max 4x4 utility earning one star for pedestrian protection, the Falcon Ute and Micra two stars and the Honda Jazz three stars out of a possible four. These results are disappointing."

ANCAP crash tests new vehicles, awards them a star rating for safety and publicises the results to the motoring public. ANCAP is supported by all Australian and New Zealand motoring clubs, Australian state governments, the New Zealand government, the Victorian Transport Accident Commission, NRMA Insurance and the FIA Foundation.

Please refer to the results section on NRMA and RTA websites, which also contain a full list of ANCAP vehicle safety ratings, including commercial vehicles and other vehicle safety information. Go to NRMA crash tests or www.rta.nsw.gov.au.

Crash test still image available at http://tinyurl.com/5rpcgz.

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