Fords new Kuga was awarded a full 5 stars for adult occupant protection in its first NCAP test. Proving it’s not just a pretty face, the kuga also went on to win 4 out of 5 stars for child occupant protection and 3 out of 4 for pedestrian protection.
Seat’s Ibiza was the other big winner, achieving the same figures as the Kuga, in all but pedestrian protection, where Kuga outscored the Ibiza by one point.
In the tests, the Audi A4 and Skoda Superb both were awarded five stars in the adult occupant category, but couldn’t match the pedestrian safety targets, scoring just 2 points each.
There were other vehicles being tested also and briefly, they included the Hyundai i10, Citroen Berlingo and Volkswagen T5 MPV and all scored four stars for both adult and occupant protection, and in order noted they scored three, two and one stars for pedestrian protection.
Michiel van Ratingen, who is the Secretary General of Euro NCAP, was satisfied with the high scores in the child occupant protection category, but fact is, no one has yet achieved the full 5 stars.
NCAP however are less happy with the area of pedestrian protection, as no one has made any significant strides forward, despite legislation which will be put in place in the near future.
For the moment, I guess the answer is, don’t walk out in front of a car……problem solved.
