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The latest Vectra has a strong body that protects its passengers. It withstood the frontal impact well enough to allow all of its doors to open normally afterwards. The chest loads on the driver were relatively high, though. Both children used ISOFIX restraints and the younger one's worked well. However, the restraints had no labels to confirm that they met type approval regulations, although Opel told Euro NCAP that they did. Like most of the other cars tested here, the Vectra was poor at protecting pedestrians from harm.

Front impact
The Vectra withstood the impact well, suffering minimal distortion to its footwell and door aperture, while its brake and accelerator pedals moved only a short distance downwards and backwards. The car has pedals designed to break away in order to protect the driver's feet, but the footwell was not damaged badly enough to trigger this safety system. Both the driver's and passenger's knees were at risk from striking hard points behind the fascia. The centre rear belt was a three point type that has been shown to give far superior protection to that of a lap-only belt.

Side impact
The car achieved a maximum score for its safety performance in this test.Opel provides a head-protecting side airbag (curtain) that protects the rear seat passenger as well as the driver. The car passed, confirming that the head-protecting airbag performs well.

Child-protection
An airbag warning pictogram was posted on the passenger's end of the fascia but this did not warn of the danger associated with using a rearward-facing restraint on the front passenger seat. ISOFIX mountings are installed in all new Vectras and these were used to attach the child restraints. Opel-branded Kiddy seats were recommended for both children. The younger child's restraint performed well in the frontal and side tests but the older child's seat proved to be poor in both tests.

Pedestrian protection
Just four places of 18 tested on the car's front offered protection. This is poor for a new car and Euro NCAP believes that Opel needs to do more for vulnerable road users.