Five stars for Skoda Fabia
ANCAP awards top safety rating to new Skoda baby, plus Jeep Grand Cherokee and Holden Astra GTC and VXRThe Australasian New Car Assessment Programme (ANCAP) has awarded maximum five-star safety ratings to three models overnight, led by the new-generation Skoda Fabia hatch and wagon that officially go on sale tomorrow (July 8).
ANCAP heaped praise on the Fabia hatch and wagon in particular for the inclusion of Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB), which automatically applies the brakes in the event of an imminent low-speed collision, as standard across the light-car range
"AEB systems have shown to reduce rear-end crashes by more than 50 per cent," said ANCAP Chief Executive Officer, Nicholas Clarke.
"The introduction of more advanced AEB systems – which work at a range of speeds, and which are able to detect other obstacles such as pedestrians, cyclists and animals – will contribute to a further reduction in the number and severity of road crashes.
"Now is the time to accelerate the introduction of this important technology across the Australian vehicle fleet. ANCAP is buoyed by the decision by Skoda to provide AEB as standard across all Fabia variants and we are continuing our call for all manufacturers to do the same," said Mr Clarke.
"Sophisticated vehicle safety technologies such as AEB will lead the way in reducing road trauma at an unprecedented rate," said Clarke.
All versions of Jeep's Grand Cherokee now also come with a five-star ANCAP rating across the range following upgrades to the structure and seat design of V6 versions built from March 2013.
The Grand Cherokee scored highly in all crash-test scenarios, including a perfect 16 out of 16 in ANCAP’s side-impact test.
"ANCAP brings welcome news to consumers with all V6 variants of the Jeep Grand Cherokee now able to claim five-star status," said Clarke.
Fiat Chrysler Australia's Director of Marketing and Product Strategy, Zac Loo, said: “We couldn’t be happier with the Grand Cherokee’s performance in ANCAP’s crash-test program.
“This five-star rating follows the Grand Cherokee’s equally impressive five-star result in America’s NHTSA crash-test program, and is all down to the tireless work of our engineers who strive to make every model as safe as possible.
“We know how important safety is to families when deciding on a vehicle, and this result means further peace of mind for our customers.”
Also receiving the top five-star ANCAP rating were the Holden-badged
Astra GTC, GTC Sport and VXR hatch models previously sold here as Opels.
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