I was interested to stumble across the Safety Beyond Stars page of Volvo’s website
Now I’m not saying that this is Volvo’s opinion, but the name of the page struck a chord as I’ve had several conversations with manufacturer experts frustrated about the marketing prominence given to NCAP results.
While there’s no doubting that cars are safer as a result of the NCAP tests, there’s a question mark as to whether cars that score particularly well in NCAP are actually safer than those that score less well.
Whisper it, but one or two manufacturers have, off the record, have been accused of engineering cars to pass the very specific NCAP tests – crashing into an offset barrier at 40mph, 50mph side impact and 18mph pole impact – rather than creating an all-round safe vehicle.
The argument is that some five-star NCAP cars will offer brilliant protection if your accident mirrors one of the tests, but maybe you’re in better hands in other models if your impact is less scientific.
I repeat (for legal reasons) that this is what various unnamed manufacturers have expressed in non-reportable conversations, and not anything Volvo is saying, but the Safety Beyond Stars naming of the website rang some bells in bits of my memory not backed up by notes!
