Euro NCAP Safety Ratings

[Ben H]

Caught an old Top Gear on Sky whilst round the in laws this afternoon & they had samples of cars used for NCAP safety tests.
They only had cars which acheived from 3 star safety rating up to a 5 star safety rating. Cars which had been given 3 stars had suffered from relocatation of steering cloumns and pedals, buckled roofs & distorted door frames proving the cabin area had been affected & seemed to be frowned upon The 5 star cars doors you could open & close still even though the front had been totaled.
They then proceeded round the audience asking people what cars they drive & telling them there safety rating including telling people their pre 01 Audi A4, their pre 97 Mercedes C Class & a Citroen Saxo all came in with a 2 star rating

This got me wondering although I know the Vectra has been proving very good by some of our stunt drivers here what the Vectra came out like as mine is used for the family.
Just looked it up o their site & was quite intresting.

Opel/Vauxhall Vectra
Adult occupant rating
Pedestrian rating
Test Scores: Front 12 (75&#37 Side 18 (100%) Overall 30 (88%) Pedestrian 5 (14%)



The latest Vectra has a strong body that protects its passengers. It withstood the frontal impact well enough to allow all of its doors to open normally afterwards. The chest loads on the driver were relatively high, though. Both children used ISOFIX restraints and the younger one's worked well. However, the restraints had no labels to confirm that they met type approval regulations, although Opel told Euro NCAP that they did. Like most of the other cars tested here, the Vectra was poor at protecting pedestrians from harm.

Frontal Impact The Vectra withstood the impact well, suffering minimal distortion to its footwell and door aperture, while its brake and accelerator pedals moved only a short distance downwards and backwards. The car has pedals designed to break away in order to protect the driver's feet, but the footwell was not damaged badly enough to trigger this safety system. Both the driver's and passenger's knees were at risk from striking hard points behind the fascia. The centre rear belt was a three point type that has been shown to give far superior protection to that of a lap-only belt.

Side Impact The car achieved a maximum score for its safety performance in this test.Opel provides a head-protecting side airbag (curtain) that protects the rear seat passenger as well as the driver. The car passed, confirming that the head-protecting airbag performs well.

Child Protection An airbag warning pictogram was posted on the passenger's end of the fascia but this did not warn of the danger associated with using a rearward-facing restraint on the front passenger seat. ISOFIX mountings are installed in all new Vectras and these were used to attach the child restraints. Opel-branded Kiddy seats were recommended for both children. The younger child's restraint performed well in the frontal and side tests but the older child's seat proved to be poor in both tests.

Pedestrian Protection Just four places of 18 tested on the car's front offered protection. This is poor for a new car and Euro NCAP believes that Opel needs to do more for vulnerable road users.

Model History & Safety Equipment of Car Tested The new Vectra was introduced during March 2002. Standard equipment includes twin frontal airbags, side airbags (thorax) head-protecting airbag (curtain) front and rear outer belt pre-tensioners and load limiters, ABS and active head rests.

Also learnt something new about the pedals breaking away.

Full write up is here http://www.euroncap.com/content/safe...?id1=3&id2=118

[parapaul]

Pedestrian Protection Just four places of 18 tested on the car's front offered protection. This is poor for a new car and Euro NCAP believes that Opel needs to do more for vulnerable road users.

I've never understood their hopes of protecting pedestrians - if a ton of metal hits 12 stone of person, whatever the speed, there's only ever going to be one outcome

[Faz]

Most cars are rubbish for pedestrian protection.

The Vectra C scores highly on the safety, I was quite assured when I discovered it was a 4 star rating. Makes me feel safer while driving it

[ditchp]

safe enough for me 4-stars is fine, just glad its better then the old vx sintra!!!!!!

[VXR_DV]

I've never understood their hopes of protecting pedestrians - if a ton of metal hits 12 stone of person, whatever the speed, there's only ever going to be one outcome

At higher speeds there's only going to be one result, but it can make a difference at lower speeds: if the pedestrian's head hits the bonnet and finds solid engine just a few mm below vs a more forgiving design. My main gripe is that it's very hard to design anything sleek that meets the criteria without ending up with something that looks like a tonka toy.

dv.

[sonic]

I have seen the aftermath of a highspeed collision involving a Vectra C, a Laguna, Armco & tree. The Vec faired extremley well. All airbags deployed and all occupants out with minor injuries. All doors opened fine. The car was totalled.
In reality the difference between 4&5 stars isnt usually down to the performance of the vehicles structure but down to info stickers airbags etc, that give those extra few points.
I see totalled cars every day in my job, and I drive a Vec C!

[OilBurner]

Yeah, the Vec-C may only be 4*, but it's on the good end of 4*. The Saab 9-3 is the same car and gets 5*, mostly because it has a seatbelt warning light as standard! I think it scored just one point better apart from that, which is easily explained by minute variations in crashes, no matter how well controlled.

NCAP ain't everything, but it's a reasonably good guide. I'd like to see more data from real world crash statistics. I think the Swedes are quite good with gathering data like that.