06 Jun 2016

A safety high-five for popular sports car, Mazda MX-5

Leading independent vehicle safety advocate, the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP), today released a 5 star ANCAP safety rating for the Mazda MX-5.

“The ever-popular sports car impressed in local testing achieving a good result for this type of vehicle,” said ANCAP Chief Executive Officer, Mr James Goodwin.

Noting the previous MX-5 held a 4 star ANCAP safety rating, Mr Goodwin said, “This is a significant improvement on the model it replaces.”

“Roadsters present a design challenge for manufacturers in ensuring equivalent levels of occupant protection to conventional cars.”

“Their structures obviously differ so additional engineering elements are needed in order to provide the same levels of structural safety,” he added.

The frontal offset, side impact, pole and whiplash tests each revealed high scores but the most impressive area of assessment was pedestrian protection.

“Not only has the MX-5 performed well in each of the impact tests, this is the highest pedestrian protection score we have seen for any vehicle to date,” he said.

The MX-5 has an active, or ‘pop-up’, bonnet which is designed to provide extra clearance between a pedestrian’s head and the vehicle’s stiff components beneath.

“This active safety feature, which is only on a small number of models in our market, helped it achieve a high score for the protection of adult and child pedestrians,” said Mr Goodwin.

The MX-5 achieved a pedestrian protection rating of ‘Good’ scoring 33.72 points out of a possible 36 points. Its closest competitor is the pedestrian airbag equipped Volvo V40 with a score of 31.76.

While giving it praise, Mr James Goodwin highlighted the MX-5’s lack of driver assistance technologies.

“Autonomous emergency braking, active lane support and speed assistance systems are lacking.”

“As a newly designed model – one that is likely to remain in the market for some time – it is concerning to see these important safety technologies have been overlooked.”

Mazda MX-5 (Sept 2015-onwards) frontal offset test at 64km/h

Mazda MX-5 (Sept 2015-onwards) pedestrian test at 40km/h

Mazda MX-5 (Sept 2015-onwards) pedestrian test at 40km/h

Mazda MX-5 (Sept 2015-onwards) side impact test at 50km/h

Mazda MX-5 (Sept 2015-onwards) pole test at 29 km/h

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