More crash-testing stars

By DAVID LINKLATER

Good news: the five-star car safety club is not nearly as exclusive as it used to be. The latest round of European New Car Assessment Programme (EuroNCAP) crash tests has resulted in four more cars gaining the maximum safety rating for occupants.

Top scores from EuroNCAP are sought after, to say the least. The programme is independent of the car industry and is backed by five European governments and the European Commission. Australia's NCAP, which in turn is supported by New Zealand's Land Transport Safety Authority, has adopted the European testing protocols and also publishes some European results where relevant.

Until the latest round of testing announced last week, only two cars had achieved the maximum five-star EuroNCAP rating for occupant protection: the Renault Laguna II and the Mercedes-Benz C-class.

Now, four more cars have become heroes: Saab's new 9-3 sedan (set for launch in New Zealand this week), the latest Mercedes-Benz E-class and a brace of models from Renault - the super-luxury Vel Satis and the Megane II hatchback.

The Megane's result is particularly impressive because it also brings the five-star safety score into a more affordable price bracket, marking the first time that a small family car has scored the top rating. Expect to see the Megane II - also crowned European Car of the Year - in New Zealand late next year.

Of the rest of the vehicles tested, 11 scored four stars, including the Nissan Primera, Subaru Outback, Toyota Corolla, Citroen C3, Mercedes-Benz M-class, Hyundai Santa Fe and Nissan X-Trail.

The full range of EuroNCAP procedures include a frontal impact test at 64km/h, a side impact at 50km/h, a pole collision at 29km/h and pedestrian tests at 40km/h.

The frontal impact barrier is offset to simulate head-on accidents. For the side-impact test, a trolley with a deformable front is towed directly into the driver's door.

The pole impact is designed to measure head protection and involves the vehicle being propelled sideways into a narrow (254mm) and rigid pole, resulting in penetration of the car.

For the pedestrian results, a variety of tests is carried out to measure damage to lower and upper leg areas at the front of the car, as well as child and adult head injuries over the bonnet and windscreen area.

Points are awarded in each category, with the totals then applied to the star rating.

Steel-skeletoned, rubber-skinned dummies called Hybrid III and EuroSID-1 ride along on each crash test. Packed with sensing equipment to simulate the human experience, they cost more than $300,000 each to build.

With the increasingly impressive occupant safety being achieved by car-makers, pedestrian protection is now under closer scrutiny. Out of the five-star occupant group, the Vel Satis, E-class and 9-3 all scored a lowly one star out of a possible four for pedestrian protection, while the Megane managed just two stars.

One-star pedestrian ratings were common among the family car and off-roader categories, with the Suzuki Vitara making history in the worst possible way as the first vehicle to score no stars for pedestrian protection.