Top three crash performers for 2018

Australia’s independent vehicle safety authority ANCAP has crunched its numbers and announced the three safest cars of the 12 it rated in 2018.

ANCAP says the new Mercedes A-Class hatch was the best performer with an overall score of 89.6 per cent, followed by the top-selling new Toyota Corolla hatch (87.4 per cent) and Holden’s new Acadia large SUV (87 per cent).

Each car was evaluated for adult and child occupant protection, road-user protection and safety driver-assist systems, but the A-Class performed particularly well in the areas of child and vulnerable road-user (pedestrians, cyclists) protection.

Achieving the second-best safety score in 2018, Toyota’s new Corolla hatch impressed not just with its overall ANCAP crash-test performance but also because of its affordability.

The Holden Acadia large SUV was notable for its physical crashworthiness and its extensive range of active safety systems, said ANCAP.

Of course, all three models were awarded a maximum five-star safety rating – an accolade that now applies to more than 80 per cent of cars with published ANCAP ratings (although not all of them were achieved under this year’s more stringent scoring regime).

Other notable performers in 2018 included Ford’s new Focus small car, the Hyundai Santa Fe large SUV, the Genesis G70 luxury sedan and the all-electric Jaguar I-PACE SUV, all of which also attracted five-star ratings.

The ANCAP program includes dynamic full-frontal, frontal offset, side, pole impact testing, as well as pedestrian, static whiplash and dynamic whiplash assessment.

ANCAP also now assesses the effectiveness of driver-assistance systems such as autonomous emergency braking and lane-support.

Globally, ANCAP and its European equivalent, Euro NCAP, destroyed 154 vehicles in 275 crash tests in 2018.

The testing was performed on randomly-selected passenger vehicles (43 per cent), SUVs (49 per cent) and light commercial vehicles, (eight per cent).

The 154 vehicles were either purchased by ANCAP or Euro NCAP, or supplied by manufacturers, with the total worldwide cost of producing the ratings exceeding $18 million.

ANCAP announcement comes on the back of the passage through parliament of a new Road Vehicle Standards Bill that updates the Motor Vehicle Standards Act of 1989 to incorporate regulatory provisions designed to assist with the early introduction into of new safety technologies.