ANCAP approbation for Spark, Sportage, XF and Superb

Two new vehicles have just been crashed-tested by the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) locally, the Holden Spark and Kia Sportage, and both have scored the maximum five-star rating from local safety authority.

And its European arm, Euro NCAP, has recently crunched the Jaguar XF and Skoda Superb in Europe, with those vehicles also achieving the maximum possible five stars.

While the $40K Skoda Superb, the Sportage priced from $28,990 and the $82K Jaguar XF European cars were expected to make the five-star grade, the just-introduced Holden Spark from $13,990 was a surprise stand-out, also nabbing five stars. The impressive result highlights the improving safety levels of all cars, not just top-end machinery.

"The updated Spark is a big improvement on the model it replaces," said ANCAP CEO James Goodwin. However he did express concerned that it lacked some of the features found in its European counterpart.

"But it is lacking in more advanced safety features such as a lane support system which was standard on its European counterpart," he added.

Meanwhile Korean car maker Kia's previous issues with ANCAP that affected the Carnival haven't posed a problem for the new Sportage, which is expected to give the brand a considerable sales boost in Australia.

The medium-sized SUV was awarded a five-star safety rating but the ANCAP boss was concerned autonomous emergency braking or AEB was only offered on the top-shelf model.

"The Sportage performed well in testing and includes emergency brake assist, hill launch assist and reversing collision avoidance as standard but unfortunately Autonomous Emergency Braking [AEB] is only offered on the most expensive variant," said Goodwin.

He heaped praise on the more expensive European cars that underwent testing recently, observing that the Jaguar XF "has a high standard of safety features buyers would expect in this sort of vehicle including AEB City and Interurban," and also an active bonnet designed to reduce injury to pedestrians.

The Skoda Superb meanwhile nabbed top marks yet again in crash testing, while improving its safety credentials with a driver's knee airbag as standard plus "AEB City and Interurban along with numerous other safety assist technologies," stated Goodwin.

NCAP, the globally-accepted crash-testing regime, was originally pioneered in Australia (as ANCAP) and continues to test modern vehicles to annually updated criteria. The mounting evidence from ANCAP's on-going research suggests that new cars – whether budget-priced or prestigious – are delivering significant safety gains.