Skoda, Mini Get Top Euro Ncap Safety Ratings

In the latest batch of tested vehicles by the Euro NCAP, the Skoda Kodiaq and the new Mini Countryman are the only two models to get the highest five stars for safety in all its variants.

While all of the cars that have been recently tested, including Nissan's new Micra and the new Suzuki Swift, reach the five star levels for adult occupant protection, child protection, and pedestrian protection, the advanced safety and assist systems are making the difference to overall five-star performance.

The Czech SUV, for example, is equipped as standard with pedestrian detection system and system that detects other vehicles on the road. As for the Countryman, it gets the AEB car-to-car as standard and pedestrian detection as an option. The Suzuki Swift is the only tested vehicle that is not offered with those two systems, while the Micra features them as an optional equipment. With the optional pack fitted, the Japanese vehicle earns five stars.

"Euro NCAP started rewarding AEB pedestrian systems last year and we have seen a rapid uptake of the technology," Euro NCAP Secretary General, Michiel van Ratingen, commented. "We hope to see as fast an adoption of AEB systems that detect cyclists when tests of those systems form part of the rating next year. For twenty years, Euro NCAP has been pushing manufacturers to fit new and better safety technologies: originally, such things as airbags and pre-tensioners and, nowadays, advanced driver assistance systems that will form the building blocks for the automated vehicles of tomorrow."

The Euro NCAP safety organization points out that all recently tested Skoda models were rated as five stars. Other recent best performers in the crash test were the new BMW 5 Series, which "particularly impressed" in pedestrian safety, Mercedes-Benz E-Class, and Peugeot 3008. Meanwhile, surprisingly, the Ford Mustang was rated at three stars.