Falcon safety report premature

ANCAP (the Australasian New Car Assessment Program) and Ford anticipate making an official announcement concerning the FG Falcon's crash safety on Wednesday.

Earlier reports indicating that all the data was locked in and Ford's large car had scored enough points in an ANCAP crash test to secure a five-star rating have not officially come from Ford. So says Ford's Manager Public Affairs, Sinead McAlary.

"What's in the paper today... I am the type of person who doesn't like to buy presents for babies before they arrive," she said. "I don't like to pre-empt these things..."

As to how and from where the rumours arose, McAlary was at a loss to say.

"Don't have a clue," she succinctly responded when asked by the Carsales Network. "Who knows? It definitely didn't come from anybody I know of. The ANCAP organisation, in fairness, seems to be as distressed about the fact that the speculation is out there as we are. It's speculation at this point and it's obviously come from somebody talking to somebody they shouldn't about what they expect the result might be."

On balance then, it does seem likely that the information came from within Ford, although not through the normal Public Affairs channels, apparently. The leak has pre-empted not only the announcement, but has even jumped the gun on ANCAP's findings, according to McAlary.

"Testing has taken place over the last couple of weeks. Results are being collated and we expect to make an announcement later this week.

"Wednesday is firming to be a day where we will be able to announce what the testing results are. The results aren't finally collated yet. We'll wait for that to happen obviously, before we can confirm that.

When asked whether this leak had seriously affected Ford's ability to deliver a tactical blow with the safety announcement, McAlary said: "We always prefer to control our own destiny, but once the result is officially in, then we will be in a position to officially announce and give everybody background information -- whereas at the moment, all that's out there is speculation.

Even without the ANCAP imprimatur, Ford is convinced that the Falcon takes passive safety to a whole new level among locally manufactured vehicles.

"We have said all along, that we have a really strong safety record in Australia," says McAlary. "We've implemented a number of 'safety-firsts' over the years. The new Falcon has been designed to deliver real-world safety.

Interestingly, the 'real-world safety' design philosophy is also one to which Holden subscribes. McAlary's counterpart at Holden, John Lindsay, believes that with relatively minor modification to the VE Commodore's specification, it too could score five stars in an ANCAP test.

"We've always promoted the 'real-world' safety of the Commodore," he says. "It has a wide range of high-level safety features..."

"In the marketplace, people look at the Commodore and the safety features it offers... and realise it's a very safe vehicle."

Lindsay believes that, given the VE Commodore's migration to six airbags earlier this year, the difference between the current four-star rating and a future five-star rating might be something as inconsequential as a passenger-seatbelt reminder, although Lindsay hastens to add he's not saying it's just as simple as that.

"I was led to believe that that is one thing that would stop us getting a five-star [rating] now."

"If it was that simple, why didn't they do it in the first place?" McAlary asks rhetorically, when it was suggested the Commodore, upgraded and re-tested, might also score five-stars in ANCAP testing.

But in mitigation, Lindsay points out that the Commodore is a safe car by any standard, with or without such a safety feature.

"We believe the Commodore is an extremely safe car -- and we continue to make improvements such as adding six airbags as standard across the range," he reiterated.

Is Holden consulting with ANCAP on how Commodore safety could be improved to the point of earning a five-star rating?

"We take into account a wide variety of factors out there," Lindsay says. "It's one of a number of factors we look at -- but not the sole factor. We look at safety from a much bigger-picture [perspective]. We want the car to be safe overall."

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