Ford Mustang (reassessment)

The passenger compartment of the Mustang remained stable in the frontal offset test.  Dummy readings indicated good protection of the knees and femurs of the driver and passenger dummies.  Analysis of the dummy data showed that the driver's head had 'bottomed out' the airbag i.e. there was insufficient pressure in the airbag to prevent the head from contacting the steering wheel through the deflated airbag material.  The head of the passenger dummy also bottomed out the airbag against the dashboard, owing to insufficient inflation of the airbag and inadequate restraint for larger statures by the front passenger seatbelt load-limiter.  Ford have shown improved performance from the airbags fitted to the latest Mustang, with bottoming-out avoided.  However, the frontal offset test was not repeated and the scores reflect the performance seen in the original test.  In the full-width rigid barrier test, protection of the driver was good apart from the chest, protection of which was adequate.  However, the rear seat passenger slipped under the lap portion of the seatbelt (a phenomenon known as 'submarining') and the score for the knee, femur and pelvis body region was penalised and protection was rated as poor.  Protection of the chest was also rated as poor as the rear seatbelt (which has neither pre-tensioners nor load-limiters) showed an excessively high tensile force in the test.  Dummy readings of head deceleration indicated weak protection of the head for the rear passenger.  In the side barrier test, the Mustang scored full points with good protection of all critical body areas.  Even in the more severe side pole test, protection of the chest was adequate and that of other body regions was good.  Tests on the front seats and head restraints demonstrated a marginal level of protection against whiplash injury in the event of a rear-end collision.  A geometric assessment of rear seats indicated poor whiplash protection in these seating positions.  The latest Mustang has an autonomous emergency braking system as standard.  The system performed well in tests of its functionality at the low speeds typical of city driving at which many whiplash accidents occur.  However, the system did not qualify for points as the car's passive whiplash protection was inadequate.