ANCAP awards 5 stars to Accord, X-Trail, City, Prius C and 308

Honda Accord finally achieves maximum five-star safety rating along with Nissan X-Trail, Honda City, Toyota Prius C and upcoming Peugeot 308.

Honda have overcome the shock of last year's four-star safety rating for the Accord sedan, with recent structural tweaks helping it to earn the full five stars from the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP).

When the 9th generation Accord appeared in May 2013, ANCAP deemed its frontal offset test performance unsatisfactory for a five-star rating, scoring 11.21 out of a possible 16 .

Honda has since implemented changes to the frontal structure of the Accord in August 2014 which has raised its score in the frontal offset test to 14.79 in this round testing, pushing it over the line for a maximum five-star rating.

"This is a great example of a non-regulatory program at work," ANCAP Chairman Lauchlan McIntosh said.

"Honda has reviewed the ANCAP test results and actively implemented changes to offer consumers a safer car."

The same praise was not lavished on the X-Trail mid-size SUV however, with ANCAP critical of Nissan's omission of the Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) from Australian-spec models. Despite this the SUV still gained a five star safety rating.

ANCAP was similarly critical of the Qashqai small SUV's AEB omission when it was tested earlier this year.

Like the Qashqai, AEB is available on European-spec X-Trails, along with several other models on the Australian market. It can prevent collisions by detecting stationary objects and applying braking force before the driver reacts.

For the Honda City and Toyota Prius C, all model variants have been given the maximum five stars by ANCAP. 

Only diesel versions of the new Peugeot 308 have been awarded five stars, leaving petrol versions unrated.