Five ANCAP stars for new Mercedes-Benz GLC and Land Rover Discovery Sport

The box-fresh 2023 Mercedes-Benz GLC and updated Land Rover Discovery Sport have both been awarded a maximum five-star safety rating by the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) in accordance with the 2020-2022 protocols.

The second-generation GLC, which will be released in Australia next month, netted 92 per cent scores for both adult and child occupant protection, as well as 84 per cent for its safety assist systems and 74 per cent for vulnerable road user protection.

While that was enough to earn it five stars against the most stringent ANCAP testing criteria to date, there were a few blemishes on the GLC’s scorecard including ‘weak’ driver chest protection in the oblique pole test and ‘poor’ impact protection for the pelvis of a struck pedestrian.

The rest of the GLC’s results were as healthy as one might expect for an all-new mid-size luxury SUV, with ANCAP CEO Carla Hoorweg praising Mercedes-Benz for producing another “comprehensive safety package” for its customers.

Being an older model, it may not come as a surprise that the facelifted Land Rover Discovery Sport, which arrives in Australia in December,

didn’t quite perform as well across the board as the GLC, but it was still good enough to yield a top overall result following category scores of 85, 88, 71 and 83 per cent respectively.

Enhancements to the smallest and cheapest Land Rover model’s autonomous emergency braking (AEB) system saw it achieve ‘good’ results for its active safety systems including junction assist and cyclist detection, while its pedestrian detection and lane support systems yielded ‘adequate’ assessments.

“Structurally, the protection offered by the Discovery Sport to vehicle occupants in a crash was sound, with a mix of ‘good’, ‘adequate’ and ‘marginal’ results recorded,” said ANCAP.

“Points were deducted for the Discovery Sport’s performance in side impacts, as the side chest-protecting airbag did not deploy correctly.”

Despite the above comments, Hoorweg heaped praise on the Disco Sport for its updated safety performance, given how much stricter the ANCAP testing protocols are now compared to when it was first tested in 2014.

“For the same generation model to be awarded five-stars against ANCAP’s more recent protocols is an impressive achievement,” she said.

These two models are some of the last to be tested against ANCAP’s 2020-2022 protocols because they both entered production last year; vehicles entering production this year will be tested against ANCAP’s more stringent 2023 testing regime.

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