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The Australian New-Car Assessment Program's five star-rating doesn't do justice for Volvo. Photo Gallery
The company claiming the safest car in Australia is calling for an urgent review of national safety ratings.
Volvo says the star-rating system used by the Australian New-Car Assessment Program, which scores vehicles for crash-test results and fitting of ESP stability control, has been overtaken by advanced new systems in the world's safest cars.
It wants recognition of the sort of electronic driver assistance systems fitted to its latest XC60 — which it claims sets a new safety standard for Australia — and the upcoming BMW 7 Series and Mercedes- Benz E Class.
All have breakthrough new systems - the XC has radar crash avoidance for city traffic, the 7 can recognise speed signs and the E warns drowsy drivers - which go well beyond the current ANCAP tests and ratings.
"It's my opinion that we need to have another think about the star system. There is no doubt that it's a good cause, and a very important cause, but at the end of the day if they want to give customers what they want and not just tick boxes they need to move on," says Alan Desselss, head of Volvo Cars Australia.
"A five-star rating for something like the XC60 is probably unjustified. It gets the same star rating, and I don't mean to denigrate the product, as a Hyundai or a Mitsubishi Lancer. It's just not right.
"The public could think that five stars on one car is equal to five stars on another car, and that's not right."
Desselss wants ANCAP to begin looking beyond its crash tests, and further than the ESP stability control now essential for a five-star safety rating, to assess a vehicle's 'real' safety ranking.
And he says it should start by looking at the stability control systems used by different brands.
"Take ESP, or DTSC as we call it. I believe it is different on different cars," he says.
"What's happened now is that people just put on an ESP system because it's the only way they can get five stars. That can't be right for the message that they are trying to get out.
"An ESP system can be very different. And sometimes a good system reacts differently on different cars. And that's not given enough attention."
He also says Volvo's newest safety systems, from its blind-spot warning to lane-departure warning and the latest City Safety - which warns if a driver is too close to the car ahead, and even brakes if it senses a potential collision - are not being assessed by ANCAP.
"It's those type of things that really actively help to create better drivers. Everyone wants more safe cars on the road," he says.
