Mustang fail: Crash rating only two stars

The Ford Mustang has scored a worrying two-star rating in independent Euro NCAP safety testing.

The result, in an era where five stars is the norm, has been adopted by Australasian NCAP (ANCAP) and the two organisations announced it at the same time this evening (Jan 25).

Ford says it is disappointed by the disastrous result, which was gained testing the GT Fastback V8 in left-hand drive form.

The Mustang, which has been on-sale in Australia since December 2015, was punished severely for its lack of drive assist systems. It also performed poorly in terms of child occupant safety. It was penalised in terms of its adult front protection for what ANCAP CEO James Goodwin described as “unstable airbag deployment, where the driver's head contacted the steering wheel and the front passenger's head hit the dashboard”.

Ford Australia is stressing the car’s “four star crash performance” and claims the Mustang is the “first vehicle of its type” to be tested under new upgraded and2017 Euro NCAP testing protocols.

“Mustang is a safe car meeting, or exceeding, all applicable safety standards globally. Mustang’s safety credentials are further demonstrated by the five-star NHTSA NCAP rating awarded in the US as well as a ‘good’ IIHS rating,” Ford Australia’s new Director of Communications, Martin Günsberg told motoring.com.au.

Günsberg commented; “Mustang delivered a four-star result for front adult occupants, a three-star result for child occupants and a five-star result for pedestrian safety. However, a two-star result in the Active Safety Assist pillar determined the overall result of a two-star [NCAP] rating”.

motoring.com.au has published a standalone story with Ford Australia’s full answers to our queries regarding the Euro NCAP result.

The results are released just a week after a significant Mustang update was announced in the USA. Effectively a model year 2018 revision, the changes include a facelift but more pointedly a swag of driver assist systems including autonomous emergency braking. Ford Australia is not stating when the changes will make it Down Under.

The Mustang is the first passenger vehicle since the Chinese Chery J11 of 2011 to score a two star ANCAP rating. Euro NCAP doled out the same result to the Lancia Ypsilon in 2015.

ANCAP boss James Goodwin was scathing of the Mustang’s performance.

“This rating is simply shocking, particularly for an expensive, newly-designed and popular vehicle,” he told motoring.com.au.

“The poorest performing area is safety assist; The Mustang only got two out of a possible 12 points. There is no speed assistance, there is no lane support system, there is no emergency braking, there is no forward warning, there are no [rear] seatbelts reminders.

“But added to that concern is the structural performance... The full width frontal test showed a risk of serious head, chest and leg injuries for the rear passengers, there was insufficient inflation of both the driver and front passenger front airbags in the frontal offset test and that allowed the driver’s head to contact the steering wheel and the passenger’s head to touch the dashboard.”

As reported by motoring.com.au last July, ANCAP has been lobbying Ford to crash test the Mustang without success. It had been unable to gain supply of cars from the Blue Oval or purchase them itself to test because of the car’s popularity.

Goodwin said Euro NCAP had been striking similar issues with the continent also enjoying strong Mustang sales. That prompted the two organisations to work together to get Mustang tested.

“To my knowledge that is the first time we have ever co-ordinated a release like this,” said Goodwin.

The ANCAP boss called the result “a wake-up call for Ford”.

“It does highlight the difference between the ANCAP ratings and what is allowed to be sold in Australia. ANCAP is pushing those boundaries. It is trying to raise the bar for safety in Australia. This car is allowed to be sold in Australia but does anyone now want to buy it?” Goodwin commented.

ANCAP has been approached by various Australian police forces keen to consider the GT as a highway patrol replacement for the defunct Ford Falcon and soon-to-be-defunct Holden Commodore.

“I would suggest it would be highly unlikely any government department would be putting their employees in a vehicle that isn’t meeting the top safety requirements,” Goodwin said.

“Most fleets have a five-star buying policy and I would suggest that emergency services and police – who are putting themselves at greater risk than most people on the road – should be in the safest car on the road. Clearly this one isn’t [one of the safest cars].”

In reference to the potential police sales, Ford’s Günsberg straight-batted: “We are not actively promoting Mustang as a police or fleet vehicle at this stage and we continue to focus on providing all allocated RHD capacity to private customers.”

NCAP scored the Mustang just 27.66 out of 38 for adult occupation protection, based on a full width frontal test, a frontal offset test, side impact test, pole test and whiplash protection test. It also dropped three points in this category for not offering AEB.

In the full frontal test rear passengers were not well protected with a risk of serious head, chest and leg injury. In the frontal offset test brake pedal rearwards movement was excessive and – as Goodwin noted – the airbags didn’t inflate sufficiently. In the pole test the driver’s door opened, prompting a point deduction.

Pedestrian protection was raised by the Mustang’s active bonnet, but the front of the bonnet posed a “high injury risk.”

Some of the tests conducted by Euro NCAP such as the full frontal test are not currently part of the ANCAP regime, but that will be brought in line with NCAP in 2018.

Despite the current differences, it is not unusual for ANCAP to adopt the European result (and left-hand drive vehicles in general) for a vehicle sold in Australia.

“When there is an acceptable European rating for the vehicle that’s the same, we can just take the European assessment and that is what we have done with this,” Goodwin explained.

“About half our ratings are done like this every year,” he said.

Bruce Newton with staff