Benz B-Class claims new ANCAP record

It's official: the Mercedes-Benz B-Class is now the safest passenger vehicle in Australia. Evaluated by the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP), the B-Class scored 36.78 points out of a maximum possible tally of 37.

ANCAP released the information yesterday, although the crash safety authority doesn't promote the total scores of individual vehicles, satisfying itself with a five-star rating overall for the Benz — and its Valente sibling. However, the full score for each vehicle can be tracked on ANCAP's own website. The result for the Benz is marginally better than that of the Toyota Aurion, on 36.59.

“The ANCAP Rating Road Map progressively introduces minimum mandatory and additional SAT [Safety Assist Technologies] requirements over the coming years. Ahead of its time however, the B-Class has scored beyond the current requirements to achieve this 5 star result,” said ANCAP Chair, Lauchlan McIntosh, as quoted in a press release.

“As early as the 1950s Mercedes was forging ahead in vehicle safety with the development of the passenger safety cell, and with the addition of modern-day SATs, this is a winning combination for consumers.”

Word that the B-Class had achieved a near-perfect score came from Mercedes-Benz Australia's Manager Corporate Communications, Jerry Stamoulis.

"It's a very good news story... for a $40,000 car," Stamoulis told motoring.com.au. "It's almost a perfect 37..."

The B-Class, as standard, comes with such features as Anti-Collision warning, Pre-Safe, Adaptive Braking, Brake Drying, Crash-responsive emergency lighting, Blind Spot Assist and Lane Keep Assist. These are the sort of features ANCAP describes as 'SAT'.

"This safety equipment arrived in S-Class not too long ago," Stamoulis pointed out.

The B-Class is proving quite popular within the local Benz product range. With combined-cycle fuel consumption of 6.1L/100km and its affordable price, the new model is already encountering demand ahead of supply from the factory.

"We knew [that] with B-Class we were definitely going to have not enough stock for the demand that's out there..." said Stamoulis. "We're fighting for more [stock from the factory]."

It's part of a global issue for Benz, Stamoulis says, the B-Class being the stand-in for the A-Class, which doesn't launch in Europe for a few months yet — and the new A-Class is not the high-roofed, functional people-packer the previous model was.

"Obviously we don't want to leave any current customer without an option to upgrade or go into a new car," he said, acknowledging the B-Class is a stepping stone for former or current A-Class owners.

Stamoulis accepts that the new A-Class will have broader appeal to make up for any earlier A-Class buyers lost in the transition to the new model, and by dropping the previous generation A-Class and re-positioning the B-Class, Mercedes-Benz has seen sales of the 'B' improve markedly. The new A-Class is unlikely to change that.

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