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Joshua Dowling22 Feb 2011
NEWS

Volkswagen Amarok scores five stars for safety

It's a world first for the ute class – depending on how it's measured. Europe gives it four stars, while Australia gives it a five star safety rating...

The Volkswagen Amarok is the first body-on-frame utility in the world to be awarded a five-star safety rating – but two big safety bodies on the opposite sides of the world have opposing views on the matter.

The Amarok last year was awarded a four-star rating in European NCAP tests but this week was awarded five stars by Australian NCAP representatives – even though the results are from the exact same test.

That's because Euro NCAP has a more stringent criteria which requires extra points for child protection and the number of seatbelt reminders. Australian NCAP is yet to adopt these criteria.

An ANCAP spokesman told the Carsales Network overnight: "We are confident this is a five-star ANCAP score. If you look at the individual occupant protection scores it is worthy of five stars."

The Euro NCAP summary of the Amarok says: "The passenger compartment remained stable during the frontal impact. Dummy readings indicated good protection of the knees and femurs for the front seat occupants.

"Volkswagen was able to demonstrate that the car would offer similar protection to occupants of different sizes and to those sat in different positions. Maximum points were scored in the side barrier test.

"In the more severe side pole impact, high compression of the test dummy's ribs indicated weak protection of the driver's chest. The car was also penalised for transferring forces into the dummy in a way which could not be done with a human body, resulting in no points being awarded for chest protection. Protection of the neck in a rear impact was rated as marginal."

The Amarok scores five ANCAP stars with only four airbags: two front airbags and a head protecting side airbag in each front seats. But these features are standard on every Amarok model sold in Australia.

The next safest vehicles in the ute class -- the Toyota Hilux, Mitsubishi Triton and Nissan Navara -- are only rated at four stars even though they are available with six airbags (including full length 'curtain' airbags along each side of the cabin that protect back seat passengers as well). However, only the most expensive models get six airbags as standard.

Back seat passengers in the VW Amarok do not get side airbag protection but all five seats come with three-point seatbelts and height-adjustable headrests.

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Written byJoshua Dowling
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