Honda's new Civic has achieved a credible five-star rating in the latest round of crash testing by the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP).
It joins a number of small cars that are hovering around the 35-point mark in NCAP testing (either through ANCAP locally, or through Euro NCAP). Among these cars are Alfa Romeo Giulietta, Ford Focus, Holden Cruze, Subaru's upcoming Impreza and the Volkswagen Golf.
ANCAP additionally commended the Civic (pictured) for its pedestrian safety, rating the Honda 'good'.
“Pedestrian protection is an area that has not been well addressed amongst the current fleet so Honda has thrown out a challenge to other vehicle manufacturers ,” said Chair, Lauchlan McIntosh in a press release issued late last week.
The Honda performed better in the category of pedestrian safety than the new Impreza, which was considered 'acceptable' by ANCAP, although the Subaru scored higher overall against the Honda (35.33 points versus 34.91 for the Civic).
ANCAP's counterpart in Europe also tested the Hyundai Veloster and Volvo S60, both vehicles rating five stars under Euro NCAP's post-2009 testing regime. According to ANCAP, provided the local distributors (Hyundai and Volvo, in these cases) can convince ANCAP that the testing undertaken by Euro NCAP is applicable and relevant to right-hand drive cars sold in Australia, ANCAP will accept the Euro NCAP results and publish them as if ANCAP itself had tested the vehicles.
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