ANCAP rates Mahindra four stars for safety
Indian SUV performs well in latest round of local safety testingThe latest round of safety ratings announced by safety authority ANCAP brought expected five-star ratings for market newcomers BMW 3 Series, Honda Civic and Mazda CX-5 (all based on Euro NCAP testing), while a laudable and maybe unexpected result saw the Indian Mahindra XUV500 SUV scoring a creditable four-star rating in locally conducted testing.
This is better than Mahindra’s other Australian offering, the dual-cab 4WD Pik Up ute, which rated three stars in earlier ANCAP testing announced in April this year. And to put that in context, the Mahindra rates the same score as Nissan X-TRAIL, Suzuki Grand Vitara, Mitsubishi Outlander and Hyundai Santa Fe. It's not in the same league as five-star rated SUVs the likes of Mazda's new CX-5, Skoda Yeti, Hyundai ix35, Mitsubishi ASX and Subaru Forester.
The monocoque-bodied XUV500 scored only 10 points out of a possible 16 in offset impact testing, with the passenger compartment suffering “loss of structural integrity”. Poor protection against driver leg injury was said to be due to excessive rearward movement of the brake pedal during testing.
The 2.2-litre diesel-powered Mahindra initially comes in 4WD only (a 2WD version will follow in two months) with seven seats, six airbags, and a heartening rollcall of safety gear including six airbags, stability/traction control, rollover mitigation, hill descent control and a reversing camera. Air-conditioning and central locking are standard, while available options include leather seats, SatNav, climate-control, adaptive cornering headlights, reversing sensors and rain-sensing wipers.
The XUV500 is said to be hugely successful in India and South Africa. In Australia, it will be followed to market by the new Genio 1.25-tonne pickup.
Figures released by ANCAP from April and May this year have credited the Mercedes-Benz B-Class, Mercedes-Benz Valente family van, Toyota Aurion and Suzuki Swift with five-star ratings, while the Jeep Compass (which recorded just two stars in Euro NCAP testing) managed four stars. The Compass suffered in ANCAP testing from poor leg-injury protection for passenger and driver, which was listed as “marginal”. Its poor two-star rating in Euro NCAP testing resulted from that authority’s rating of “poor”: for pedestrian impact protection in testing that so far does not apply here.
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