Nissan has managed to salvage some crash-safety credibility for its Navara pickup following a disastrous one-star rating from the influential European New Car Assessment Programme (EuroNCAP).
In its first-ever round of pickup crash tests - a response to the increasing use of light commercials as defacto passenger cars
- EuroNCAP awarded the Navara a "one-star strike through" score.
Some of the low score was attributed to firing problems with the frontal airbags.
New passenger cars regularly receive five-star ratings.
Isuzu's Rodeo pickup also scored poorly with a two-star strike through, although Mitsubishi's L200 (Triton) pickup was awarded four stars.
Nissan has now modified the airbag software and an NCAP retest has yielded a three-star result - hardly cutting edge, but better than the original result.
With the changes, protection of the head and neck was good for both driver and passenger.
However, the passenger compartment was still unstable which, combined with the chest compression measured by the dummy, led to protection of the driver's chest being rated as weak.
Structures in the dashboard presented a risk of injury to the knees and femurs of both the driver and passenger. There was extensive deformation of the driver's footwell and the car was penalised because the lower chassis rail punched a hole in the toeboard.
Michiel van Ratingen, secretary general of EuroNCAP, says: "EuroNCAP must act as a guardian of car safety for consumers.
"Testing these vehicles [pickups] becomes imperative when we realise they are no longer simply being used for the carriage of goods.
"Manufacturers must realise we will test all cars that could have an impact on the safety of European consumers."
