NCAP ratings

It's official – crash tests are too soft. And now Euro NCAP is giving its star rating system an overhaul to force car manufacturers to improve the pedestrian protection of their vehicles.

Auto Express can reveal that from next year, only one single overall grade will be awarded to represent a model’s total safety. At the moment, separate star ratings are issued for adult occupant protection, child occupant protection and pedestrian protection.

And Euro NCAP’s secretary general Michiel van Ratingen says this has resulted in some makers only focusing on improving safety for those inside the vehicle. “We’ve seen great advances in the occupant protection of cars since our tests started in 1997. Many models now get a full five stars for adult safety. However, the same can’t be said for pedestrian protection. Maybe the way our rating system works is to blame, as it has allowed firms to publicise only their vehicle’s occupant protection score.”

Auto Express has been through Euro NCAP’s test results and checked the pedestrian protection results of every car currently on sale in the UK. The best performer is Citroen’s C6, while the worst are the Hyundai Santa Fe, Chrysler Voyager and Jeep Grand Cherokee. Each model’s rating is based on the score it achieved in pedestrian impact simulation tests at 25mph.

We then worked out an average mark across each manufacturer’s range for all their models tested under the latest procedures. This value was used to give every brand an overall star rating for pedestrian protection. As you can see in our table, the results are pretty poor. However, van Ratingen hopes the new single total safety star rating scheme will change this.

He added
“We also plan to start testing cars on whiplash protection and awarding bonus marks for crash avoidance systems, such as electronic stability control. All this should help to improve cars’ safety even further.”