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Newspress
safety ratings
Here are the 6 cars that won 'best in class' for safety in 2017
Some of the safest vehicles you can buy.
LAST YEAR WAS Euro NCAP’s busiest-ever year with nearly seventy models tested. At the end of each year, Euro NCAP lists the cars that have performed best in their respective categories. Star ratings cannot be compared directly between different categories of vehicles, so a ‘Best in Class’ is published showing which vehicles have performed better than their competitors.
To define the Best in Class, a calculation is made of the weighted sum of the scores in each of the four areas of assessment: Adult Occupant, Child Occupant, Pedestrian and Safety Assist. This sum is used as the basis for comparison of the vehicles. Cars qualify for ‘Best in Class’ based only on their rating with standard safety equipment. Additional ratings based on optional equipment are excluded.
Most of the models tested in 2017 were new to the market and most of these achieved the maximum five-star rating which, set against Euro NCAP’s increasingly tough assessments, reflects the ever-improving safety of modern vehicles. However, according to Euro NCAP “older, facelifted models fared less well, their ratings, generally poorer than those of newer cars, reflecting a lack of advanced restraint systems and driver-assistance technologies”.
Overall, Volkswagen was ‘Best in Class’ in three categories – the new Polo in the supermini class, new T-Roc in the small off-road category and the new Arteon in the executive class.
The Opel Crossland X was the safest small MPV and performed especially well in the side barrier tests, where it scored maximum points for both adult and child occupant protection.
Volvo also reinforced its reputation for safety thanks to its XC60 which was crowned the best performing large off-roader, and the car with the best overall safety performance of 2017.
The XC60 scored 98 per cent in the Adult Occupant category and in its Large Off-Road class, showed a clear advantage in Safety Assist with a score of 95 per cent – 20 percentage points higher than the nearest Large Off-Road competitor.
The Euro NCAP award for the XC60 follows in the tracks of the Volvo XC90, which in 2015 was also named the best performing large off-roader, and the car with the best overall performance that year.
Here is the list of the ‘Best in Class’ winners:
Executive – Volkswagen Arteon (read our review here)
Large Off-Road – Volvo XC60 (read our review here)
Small Off-Road – Volkswagen T-Roc (read our review here)
Supermini – Volkswagen Polo
Small MPV – Opel Crossland X (read our review here)
Small Family Car – Subaru XV and Subaru Impreza
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