Fiat Stilo

Mercedes-Benz A-Class

BMW 3 Series

By Nick Syn

NOBODY EVER PLANS to have a crash, but how many of us have actually, seriously, asked ourselves just how safe are our cars?

Air bags, seat-belt pretentioners, passenger safety cells and the litany of other highly technical sounding safety features that roll of the oily tongues of sale executives probably all have a fair bit to do with your purchase decision, if only at the level of reassuring background noise.
However, the only way to really find out how safe your family runabout actually is would be to have a crash in it. But thanks to the EuroNCAP or the European New Car Assessment Programme, you don’t have to.

EuroNCAP researchers have been happily launching cars at immovable objects since 1997 and the organisation has been widely credited with helping to raise safety standards across the automotive industry. In fact, manufacturers now loudly trumpet the fact when their products receive five-star EuroNCAP safety ratings, the highest possible score.

The tests encompass adult passenger safety, pedestrian safety as well as child-occupant safety considerations. For testing adult occupant safety, cars are pranged from the front and side, and potential injuries to occupants are extrapolated.

Pedestrian safety tests highlight the potential injuries inflicted by running somebody over, and child safety tests make use of manufacturer recommended child seats in their assessments. Sophisticated crash test dummies are used for data collection.

New cars are tested on a regular basis, and the latest batch of results for June has just been released. Here’s a look at how the new cars available for our market fared.

Small Hatchbacks
Fiat Stilo
Adult Occupant Rating - HHHHI
Pedestrian Test Rating - HIIII
Child Protection Rating - HHHHI
The Stilo did well for adult occupant protection and was rated fairly well in the area of child protection, but pedestrian protection was rated “poor”

Small Hatchbacks
Mercedes-Benz A-Class
Adult Occupant Rating - HHHHH
Pedestrian Test Rating - HHIII
Child Protection Rating - HHHHI
The new A-Class garnered the maximum score for occupant protection and good results for child protection. Pedestrian safety was rated as “reasonable”

Medium Sedan
BMW 3 Series
Adult Occupant Rating - HHHHH
Pedestrian Test Rating - HIIII
Child Protection Rating - HHHHI
While the new 3 Series scored top marks for occupant protection and a high rating for child protection, the low score for pedestrian protection was considered “disappointing”

Big Sedan
Lexus GS300
Adult Occupant Rating - HHHHH
Pedestrian Test Rating - HHIII
Child Protection Rating - HHHHI
The new GS300 scored full marks for adult occupant protection, “very good” protection for child occupants and “fairly good” protection for pedestrians