Five-star safety rating for some... For now
Latest round of Euro NCAP testing sees more five-star cars... But some manufacturers will need to lift their game on pedestrian safety to make the same grade next yearAudi's A6, the new BMW X3 and VW Golf Cabriolet are among the cars awarded a five-star safety rating in recent testing by Euro NCAP. However, ENCAP says that none of the cars in the latest submission would earn the required 60 per cent 'pass rate' in the pedestrian safety tests in the next round.
As of 2012, manufacturers must achieve 60 per cent or better in pedestrian safety tests to achieve an overall five-star result. For comparison, the new Audi A6 scored highly for adult and child protection safety (91 and 83 per cent) but was one of the cars tested which "only just meet Euro NCAP's 2011 pedestrian requirements", scoring 41 per cent.
Audi Australia's General Manager for Corporate Communications, Anna Burgdorf told motoring.com.au: "We're continually improving our efforts for good results in testing... [Meanwhile] the A6 is a very safe car."
Closest to the upcoming 60 per cent pass requirement in the latest test group was VW's new Jetta, on 56 per cent.
On the new requirements, ENCAP says: "A few car makers have already stepped up, showing much higher pedestrian scores such as the recently tested Ford Focus." The Focus was rated at 92 per cent for adult protection; 82 per cent for child protection and 72 per cent for pedestrian protection safety.
The new BMW X3 achieved 53 per cent in the pedestrian category, and also scored a Euro NCAP 'reward' for its Assist Advanced eCall system which sends information to BMW's call centre via SMS of the location and severity of a crash, including details as to how many airbags deployed, incidence of rollover, number of occupants and seat-belt use.
ENCAP judges believe the system has life-saving benefits, stating: "In accidents involving a fatality around a third of mortalities occur within the first 10 minutes. BMW Advanced eCall cannot help these people. However, of the remaining two thirds, currently around half of the mortalities occur within 90 minutes of the accident and the other half at a time later than that. Advanced eCall has the potential to assist these two groups."
Lack of the eCall system's availability in Australia has more to do with the current local communications network infrastructure than BMW Australia.
"We've had our technicians down here several times," Piers Scott, spokesman for the brand told motoring.com.au. He explained the same issues -- basically, compromised "services on the ground" in terms of network -- affected the company's rollout of other telematic features like traffic information in its driver assistance systems. The message details are currently handled by BMW's European outfits (in this case, Sweden) and apparently SMS transmissions "time-out" when coming from Oz.
See the latest Euro NCAP results here.
Read the latest Carsales Network news and reviews on your mobile, iPhone or PDA at the carsales mobile site
Please see our Editorial Guidelines & Code of Ethics (including for more information about sponsored content and paid events). The information published on this website is of a general nature only and doesn’t consider your particular circumstances or needs.
