EuroNCAP hurried to test three new cars in 2017. On their list were two Volvo models and a car that became very popular in Europe in the last two years: the 2015 Ford Mustang, who recently was revised for 2017.
Launched last year, the S90 and V90 are the latest additions to the Volvo Cars lineup and the first cars to be tested against Euro NCAP’s 2017 test regime.
Both models take advantage of the many advanced technologies of the XC90 and made a big impression in all areas of Euro NCAP’s assessment. Standardfit autonomous emergency braking for cars and pedestrians performed outstandingly well in Euro NCAP’s tests and the vehicles also offer lane and speed assistance.
In this conditions, no wonder the S90 and V90 results surpass the best overall score of any model tested last year and now make Euro NCAP’s top3 best performing cars ever, all Volvo.
In contrast, Ford’s iconic musclecar, the Mustang, has scored a twostar rating for overall safety, with concerns about its crash protection of adult and child occupants and a worrying lack of safety equipment commonly available on the European market.
The results reveal the American “DNA” of the Mustang that is designed to score well in the less wideranging US consumer tests. The European variant has seen only those minor updates required to meet European (pedestrian) safety regulation and the Forward Collision Warning system was removed when it was introduced here.
In the frontal offset test, the airbags of both the driver and passenger inflated insufficiently to properly restrain the occupants. In the fullwidth frontal test, a lack of rear seatbelt pretensioners and loadlimiters meant that the rear passenger slid under the seatbelt, implying higher risk at abdominal injuries in real life accidents. In the side impact crash, the head of the 10year dummy contacted the interior trim bottoming out the curtain airbag.
Ford say that a facelifted Mustang will be available later this year with PreCollision Assist and Lane Keep Assist as standard. Euro NCAP expects to test the safety of this updated model when it is available on the European market.
