Launch of the Perodua Bezza

Live coverage of the launch on the 21st of July 2016 was provided by Paul Tan on their You Tube page:

 

Besides Perodua's good reputation among Malaysians, the Bezza also has achieved five stars in the ASEAN NCAP safety assessment for the 1.3L Advance variant (first Perodua car to get 5 stars) and four stars for the other variants.

 No wonder Perodua has reportedly received more than 4000 orders in first five days.

New Infiniti Q30 achieves Euro NCAP five-stars

The new Infiniti Q30 has received the maximum five-star in the latest Euro NCAP Assessment.

The Infiniti Q30 gained top scores in each of these four testing categories: occupant protection, child protection, pedestrian protection and safety assist.

Occupant protection scored highly in the rigorous test program with an 84 per cent rating for adult safety. As well as a driver knee airbag, the Q30 has driver-, passenger-, front hip-thorax side and front-to-rear curtain airbags.

An automated system in the front passenger seat will turn off the front passenger airbag when someone fits a rearward facing child seat.

For Pedestrian Protection, the Q30 scored 91 per cent, a score which is determined from tests to the most important vehicle front-end structures, such as the bonnet and windshield, the bonnet leading edge and the bumper. The Q30 is equipped with a sensor that detects a pedestrian’s legs contact with the bumper and causes the hood to pop up to give more clearance between the hood surface and the hard parts of the engine to protect pedestrians.

An 81 per cent score in the Safety Assist category was due to the latest safety technologies fitted to the Q30 as part of Infiniti’s acclaimed Safety Shield system. They include Forward Collision Warning, Lane Departure Warning and Speed Limit Alert.

Click the link below for a detailed report of Euro NCAP’s findings:

http://www.euroncap.com/en/results/infiniti/q30/22031 .

Skoda Superb joins list of top safety achievers

According to the latest safety test results released by Euro NCAP, the Skoda Superb achieved 5 Stars, thanks to robust crash protection and its Autonomous Emergency Braking systems. The Superb is also equipped with crash avoidance technologies awarded under the Euro NCAP Advanced Rewards scheme such as Multi Collision Brake and Crew Protect Assist.

Among other cars tested, the Hyundai i20 supermini acheived 4 stars which is quite good for its segment, but misses out on the 5 stars due to a lack of an AEB system.

However, the Fiat Panda Cross recveived a modest 3 star rating. The supermini, based on the third-generation Panda 4x4 launched back in 2012, lacked assist technologies and also did not fare well in the latest full width crash test designed to evaluate the protection offered to smaller occupants in the driver and rear passenger seat.

Given below is the list of car safety ratings for 2015 so far, from the Euro NCAP website.

Renault Espace and Suzuki Vitara awarded 5 stars

The latest Euro NCAP safety test results for this year is out and the new Renault Espace (large MPV) as well as the Suzuki Vitara (supermini) has been awarded 5 stars. The later received points for its Autonomous Emergency Braking system (included in the rating scheme since last year).

Also included in the report published this month are the results for the Fiat 500X in the Small MPV category and the Mazda 2 in the Supermini category. Both cars were awarded 4 stars.

Nissan Datsun Go crash test results

The Nissan Datsun Go car which is aimed at the Indian market was recently tested for safety. The car failed spectacularly getting 0 out of possible 5 stars. The car comes without air bags and looking at the video of the test, it would not have done much good even if the car had been fitted with them. If the car can get this badly damaged at just 40mph speeds, I am just wondering what would happen at UK highway speeds of 70mph.

MNCs need to stop pushing lousy products into the emerging markets. And India definitely needs to have some minimum safety standards put in place.

Tesla Model S 2014 scores 5/5 in Euro NCAP crash test

The Tesla Model S electric car has scored 5 stars (the maximum) safety rating after testing by the Euro NCAP.

The 4 door saloon falls under the executive class.

Read the full report here.

Launch of the Proton's compact car - Proton Iriz in Malaysia

Malaysian car company is launching their new compact car the Proton Iriz today. Blogger Paul Tan is streaming the launch live.

Even before the launch of the car, it has received five-star rating in Adult Occupant Protection and four-star rating in Child Occupant Protection by the New Car Assessment Programme for Southeast Asian Countries (Asean NCAP).

The car will come in 3 Trim lines and 8 variants and in 7 colours.

Prices of the car (on-the-road) will be between RM42,438 and RM62,888.

BMW to recall cars over air bag fears

BMW is recalling about 1.6 million 3-Series vehicles produced between May 1999 and August 2006 worldwide. They will replace passenger-side front airbags made by Takata Corp because the inflators could break apart during deployment and injure passengers.

The recall is an extension of last year's recall of 240,000 cars globally for the same issue, he said.

The air bag supplied by Japan's Takata has also affected Honda Motor Co, Toyota Motor Corp, Nissan Motor Co, Mazda Motor Corp, Fuji Heavy Industries-owned Subaru, Mitsubishi, Ford and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles' Chrysler brand.

This latest recall will affect about 574,000 in the United States, about 450,000 in Germany and about 189,000 in the United Kingdom.

Safety risk of Heavy Quadricycles

Quadricycles, which as the name suggest, were originally derived from motorcycles. They have emerged as a new class of sub-compact vehicles in Europe.

They are small and fuel-efficient. I have recently noticed several Universities here in the UK using street-legal quadricycles. These include the Club Car Villager 2+2 LSV, the Renault Twizy 80, the Tazzari ZERO and the Ligier IXO J LINE 4 Places

Their safety tests are different from other cars as they do not have to pass any of the rigorous crash tests to which cars are subjected. However,according to a recent report from the EURO NCAP, frontal and side impacts at 50km/h, revealed severe safety problems for all four cars.

The vehicles were scored primarily on data from crash dummies but penalties were also given for poor performance of the structure or restraints. The Ligier and the Tazzari had major failings of their restraint systems in the frontal test. In the Ligier, the upper connection of the driver’s seatbelt pulled out of the structure, leaving the dummy unrestrained and leading to a high risk of injury.

In the Tazzari, the driver seatbelt broke and the driver’s head hit the steering wheel with a force that indicated a high risk of serious or fatal injury. The structure of the Club Car virtually collapsed in the frontal impact. The Renault Twizy - the only vehicle of the four tested to have an airbag as standard - scored best but its stiff structure and restraint system resulted in some dangerously high dummy readings.



Read more here: Euro NCAP

Seat Belts and the New Volvo coupe concept

An interesting titbit about the new Volvo coupe concept was on the Volvo Facebook page:

"Volvo invented the 3-point belt back in 1959. In our mission to make all car travel safer we gave the idea away, license free, to all manufacturers. It set the standard for safety and the inclusion of this special buckle in the Concept Coupe pays homage to our legacy."

Crash test results of 4 new vehicles published by Euro NCAP

Euro NCAP recently released the crash test results for four new vehicles, namely the Nissan Evalia, the Dacia Sandero, the Renault CAPTUR and the Chevrolet Trax. Out of the three, the Nissan was the worst performing with just 3 stars. However the Renault CAPTUR and the Chevrolet Trax both achieved the overall five star rating.

More test results will be released on 26 June 2013.

For more details visit the Euro NCAP website.