Euro NCAP praises Ford, Mercedes and Volkswagen vehicles
The European vehicle safety authority, known as Euro NCAP, rarely praises specific vehicles after they’ve been put through the ringer at their crash-testing facilities, but the Ford Fiesta, the Mercedes-Benz A-Class and the Volkswagen Golf Mk7 have managed this exact feat.
The Volkswagen golf was commended for including four advanced driver assistance technologies – Front Assist, Lane Assists, Proactive Occupant Proteciton and Multi-collision Brake – thus increasing its score in the Safety Assist category.
However not everything came up roses for the Golf as Euro NCAP express its disappointment that it featured no rear seatbelt reminder system as standard, even though this feature is included in many other new cars.
The Mercedes-Benz A-Class features only three driver assist systems – but all of them were previously awarded by the Euro NCAP – these are the Attention Assist, Collision Prevention Assist and Pre-Safe.
The Ford Fiesta made the honor roll because of its inclusion of the MyKey technology, which allows parents to program a bunch of limits into the keys that their children use: there’s a maximum speed limit, audio volume limit as well as more-insistent seatbelt reminder warnings which can be set by the parents.
Not all the cars in the last testing round did so well though, the Dacia Lodgy – a basic people-mover from the budget Romanian manufacturer – was unexceptional due to its 77 percent score in the Child Protection criterion.
Euro NCAP were particularly unsatisfied with the budget vehicle because earlier in the week the Sandero got only a one-star rating by Latin NCAP.
