ANCAP HITS AND MISSES

“ANCAP is perfectly capable of giving a contemporary star rating to older vehicles but it chooses not to”

ALLOW ME TO raise two points regarding your ANCAP feature (Wheels, August). By having most cars (or even any cars) rate five stars out of five (5/5), the rating scale has a ‘ceiling effect’ where superior performance above a certain level cannot be revealed to the audience. If safety was rated according to, say, an absolute number, then as safety got better the number could increase and cars could be rated with higher and higher numbers as time went on. Guidance could be given as to what a good number for a modern vehicle is. With the current arrangement, consumers have no guidance about how to compare 5/5 (2021) with 5/5 (2017). This information exists but is not disclosed. ANCAP would be perfectly capable of giving a contemporary star rating to older vehicles but it chooses not to. Second point: As far as I can tell, if two five-star vehicles have a head-on crash, the occupants in the heavier car will be much better off. If a 200 Series LandCruiser has a head-on with a Yaris, the people in the LC will me much better off. This is not reflected in the ANCAP ratings. If it were, it would make it impossible for a small car to rate 5/5. I believe that this is done for ideological reasons and that ANCAP hopes to steer people towards smaller, greener cars. This is contrary to their stated aim of enabling people to buy the safest car possible.

Both good points, Andrew (and too much to address here). The issue of vehicle mass is something ANCAP does mentions on its site: “Care must be taken when comparing results for different vehicles across different categories as only those vehicles of similar mass can be correctly compared.” That said, you’d need to read the FAQs to find this...