Key Toyota RAV4 rival denied top safety rating  

The 2024 Honda CR-V has been issued a four-star ANCAP safety rating, while its smaller sibling, the Honda ZR-V as well as some versions of the Civic small car have been slapped with the same sub-par safety result by the Australasian New Car Assessment Program. 

The shock safety ratings have been announced after the latest round of crash tests performed overseas by ANCAP’s European counterpart, Euro NCAP, and are the result of manufacturers “...only prioritising higher levels of safety in markets where the regulation requires it”, according to ANCAP chief executive Carla Hoorweg.  

Versions of the sixth-generation Honda CR-V sold in Australia and New Zealand miss out on the latest Honda Sensing 360 safety and driver assist suite fitted to European CR-V models, meaning the full five-star rating applied by Euro NCAP can’t be applied to local models.  

Instead, locally delivered CR-Vs come standard with the lower-tier Honda Sensing system with 'a less-sophisticated suite of active collision avoidance ADAS)', reads the official ANCAP statement.  

The major omission is the lack of reverse autonomous emergency braking. 

That means although it scored 88 per cent for adult occupant protection and child occupant protection, a 68 per cent score for the Safety Assist portion of testing pushed it below the five-star threshold. 

In the case of the Honda ZR-V small SUV, ANCAP has now confirmed the four-star rating applied to Euro models will also apply here, despite being structurally different.  

“A different front bumper beam is fitted to Australian vehicles, which affected test performance in some test impact locations. European vehicles are built with an additional beam in the rear doors, which is omitted from Australian-sold vehicles.

“Whilst no observable effect on test performance was identified, Honda is yet to provide information as to why the additional beam has been excluded,” says ANCAP in its press release. 

In its safety report, the ZR-V scored 88 per cent for child occupant protection and 81 per cent for vulnerable road user protection but like the CR-V, a sub-par 68 per cent in the Safety Assist segment. 

At the same time, hybrid versions of the Honda Civic have been awarded a full five stars thanks to crash testing performed by Euro NCAP, however, it’s a different story for petrol versions of the Japanese brand’s popular small car. 

Petrol-powered Civic models – including the racy Type-R hot hatch – remain ‘unrated’ for now, with ANCAP citing significant specification differences between petrol and hybrid models.  

Some of those safety omissions include a front centre airbag, side airbags for rear passengers, speed sign recognition and intelligent speed limiter systems, not to mention intelligent seatbelt reminders for rear passengers. 

As such, ANCAP says it the differences mean the independent safety authority is 'unable to determine how petrol variants would likely perform' when put through their paces in ANCAPS testing regime.  

“What we’re seeing here are manufacturers consciously providing Australian and New Zealand consumers with products that do not match the same levels of safety provided to European consumers, and no doubt consumers will be surprised to learn of these differences,” stated ANCAP boss, Carla Hoorweg.  

“We are seeing some manufacturers prioritise higher levels of safety only in markets where the regulation requires it – while others are offering different safety specifications based on the expectations of dominant sales markets, production locations, or markets with less mature consumer expectations,” said the ANCAP boss. 

“While we do see this from time to time, we don’t want to see a more significant trend emerge,” she warned.