Cars chosen for testing
Who funds the crashed car models used in Euro NCAP’s tests? Why are some cars tested with certain safety features when others are not? Some vehicles that have been crash-tested by EuroNCAP could be sold by manufacturers with lower levels of safety equipment than the standard tested. Does this not mislead the consumer? If a certain model of car has been crash-tested by Euro NCAP, does the rating also apply to the variant models?
Who funds the crashed car models used in Euro NCAP’s tests?
Each member of Euro NCAP pays to have at least one car model tested each year. Car manufacturers can also request that their car is tested. In such circumstances, they pay for the testing. However, they have no control over the publishing of the results. Euro NCAP obtains the cars in a number of ways. In each case, care is taken to ensure that the cars are built to normal production standards. It is clearly important to ensure that we do not test cars which are specially prepared for us. Normally, the cars are paid for by the sponsor of the tests.
Why are some cars tested with certain safety features when others are not?
Euro NCAP policy is to test the best selling version of a car model with the safety features which it has as standard in all 15 EU Member States, at the beginning of 2004, or those Member States into which the best selling version of the car is sold. If a manufacturer has optional equipment which is important for safety, they are allowed to pay for an additional test with the optional equipment. When rating the car Euro NCAP use the scores obtained by the 'standard' car in the tests. Over the coming years, Euro NCAP is phasing in these requirements to cover the 10 new Member States.
Some vehicles that have been crash-tested by EuroNCAP could be sold by manufacturers with lower levels of safety equipment than the standard tested. Does this not mislead the consumer?
Due to time constraints and costs, it is impossible for Euro NCAP to test every existing single model of a car model and its variants. So in order to provide information relevant to the greatest number of consumers, our policy is to test the biggest-selling variant of the manufacturer's product. At all times we seek to ensure that the vehicle tested has the safety equipment standard on that variant in the EU 15. We believe it is in the interest of manufacturers to ensure this is correct, given potential repercussions from the media and general public when we publish results.
In strict terms our rating applies only to the variant tested, with the safety equipment fitted as standard. Consumers should check to ensure that the car they purchase has at least this level of safety equipment, if they are concerned about safety.
If a certain model of car has been crash-tested by Euro NCAP, does the rating also apply to the variant models?
As indicated above, our rating only applies to the variant tested, with the safety equipment fitted as standard. Euro NCAP does allow the generic advertising of a car model using our star rating. However, we do not allow particular variants that we have not tested to be advertised using our rating such as estate variants of cars that were originally tested as saloons.