9:42 am, January 26, 2017
THE ICONIC Ford Mustang has achieved a safety rating of just two stars in the latest round of Euro NCAP tests.
The low score was awarded because of concerns over the muscle car’s adult and child occupant crash protection, as well as its lack of safety equipment that is commonly available in cars on the European market.
Euro NCAP criticised Ford, saying that the results of the crash test showcased the Mustang’s ‘American DNA’, which is designed to score well in the less extensive US consumer tests.
Ford only applied minor updates to the European variant of the Mustang so that it met the region’s pedestrian safety regulations. The Forward Collision Warning system was also done away with on European specification cars.
It was noted that the car’s driver and passenger airbags inflated insufficiently to correctly restrain the occupants in the frontal offset test.
During the full-width frontal test, Euro NCAP also noted that the absence of rear seatbelt pre-tensioners and load-limiters caused the rear passenger to slide under the seatbelt, which could lead to a greater risk of stomach injuries in a real-world crash.
When a side impact crash was simulated, the head of the 10-year-old dummy came in contact with the interior trim bottoming out of the curtain airbag.
Ford has said the recently announced 2018 Mustang will feature Pre-Collision Assist and Lane Keep Assist as standard. The new pony car will be tested by Euro NCAP once it is available on the European market.
In contrast, the new Volvo S90 and V90 models both achieved the maximum five-star rating after being the first vehicles to be tested under Euro NCAP’s 2017 crash test regime.
Both cars surpassed the best overall results of any car tested last year, and join the Volvo XC90 in Euro NCAP’s top three best-performing cars.
Euro NCAP’s secretary general, Michiel van Ratingen, said: ‘Volvo has invested in safety, has made key technologies standard across the model range and the results speak for themselves: a very impressive five-star rating.’
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