Why the 2023 Hyundai Palisade earned a five-star safety rating when the 2022 version only managed four, and the questions it raises about new car safety and testing | Opinion

In June, the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) awarded the Hyundai Palisade a four-star safety rating. Then, in August ANCAP awarded the Hyundai Palisade a five-star safety rating. 

What happened in those two months highlights the complex role the safety body plays in the car industry and how car buyers can get lost in the array of stars and safety tests.

Safety ratings are the most controversial topic in the car industry, so much so that no car company executive will go ‘on the record’ saying anything that could possibly be interpreted as ‘anti-safety’ or critical of ANCAP.

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That’s in large part because car companies know they need ANCAP and its five-star rating to open the door to not just any consumer who values safety, but to most fleet buyers and increasingly-popular ride-sharing services that require the top rating.

The relationship between car companies and ANCAP is in many respects symbiotic, because the carmakers like to promote a maximum safety rating and ANCAP often relies on the car companies to supply the multiple cars it requires for crash testing.

However, the example of the Palisade brings into focus some problems in the relationship between these two sides, but more importantly, it demonstrates how difficult it can be for consumers to get a clear indication of how various models compare in terms of safety. The reason for both these issues is because ANCAP updates its crash testing procedures approximately every three years to keep up with the latest technology and consumer changes.

In the case of the Palisade, it wasn’t originally designed for the Australian market and was instead destined for the USA and South Korea, two countries that use their own safety body to test, and went on sale in 2018. That meant by the time it was engineered for right-hand drive and went on sale in Australia at the end of 2020 it wasn’t equipped with the safety features it needed to pass the new-for-2020 ANCAP testing protocols with a five-star result.

Hyundai would have known then, thanks to its own internal testing and understanding of ANCAP’s regulations, that it was destined for a four-star rating. So, Hyundai made a decision to not provide cars for testing to ANCAP, thus putting the onus on the safety body to invest nearly $1 million to buy enough Palisades to put through its multiple crash tests.

This was a deliberate move from Hyundai to slow down the inevitable publication of bad news, perhaps even hoping ANCAP would let what is ultimately a relatively low-volume model slip through its net.

But ANCAP didn’t let it slide, and this is where the situation gets confusing, because when the safety body did crash test the car in early 2022 it only published the results in June - just two months before the facelifted and safety-upgraded Palisade would arrive.

ANCAP made the point in its press release announcing the four-star rating that the Palisade was “the only Top 10 selling model within the large SUV (<$70,000) segment without an independent safety rating”.

The problem is, of the other nine cars in that segment that have a five-star rating, only three others (the Isuzu M-UX, Toyota Kluger and Subaru Outback) were tested to the same post-2020 testing protocols as the Palisade. The best-seller in the class, the Toyota Prado, has a five-star ANCAP rating that dates back to 2011, albeit with updates to the score in 2017 when new tech was added.

Still, that means six of the 10 large SUVs were tested to a lower standard than the Palisade but have a higher published score.

For consumers this is where - despite ANCAP’s best efforts with ‘tested-on-date’ stamps and other material on its website - things arguably get confusing. This runs counter to ANCAP’s stated goal to “provide clear, reliable and independent consumer information” because unless you have a deep and knowledgeable understanding of ANCAP’s crash testing protocols for each year, you simply aren’t comparing like for like.

To its credit, ANCAP and its chief executive officer, Carla Hoorweg, admit this can be a challenge for consumers when they’re trying to compare cars. So to try and combat this issue ANCAP will adopt the same six-year ‘use-by-dates’ as Euro NCAP beginning in December this year. That means, when the calendar rolls over at the end of this year, any vehicles tested in 2015 or earlier will no longer be able to display their ANCAP rating. This will continue each year, so that each rating will only be valid for six years moving forward.

“We acknowledge that the ANCAP safety rating process is complex, that’s why we introduced the “tested year” datestamp,” Ms Hoorweg told CarsGuide. “Checking the “tested” datestamp ensures you are comparing vehicles rated to similar test criteria.”

She added: “We recognise there are some older ratings still in the market and ANCAP is introducing a policy to expire these from 1 January 2023. This will mean consumers are only comparing ratings across a six year window – which better aligns with the standard model lifecycle.”

This is a big step forward, but it only solves part of the problem. Because as explained at the beginning, the Palisade is now rated with the maximum five-stars because the 2023 model year arrived with an updated safety package. Changes to the adult occupant protection and active safety categories helped give it the points it needed on ANCAP’s scoring to elevate its rating.

The challenge here is that Hyundai actively helped this time because - to be blunt - it served its interest to provide ANCAP with more crash test data and other information at its own expense in order to get the higher score.

This is by no means a problem limited to Hyundai and it would be unfair for us to single them out. The reality is many car brands will happily provide the necessary cars to ANCAP (or Euro NCAP) for testing as long as they know they will get a five-star rating. It’s only when they know they won’t get top marks that they hold back.

In the specific example of the Palisade, Hyundai is adamant that it was planning these mid-life, Australian-focused safety upgrades for more than two years and wasn’t shamed into it by ANCAP’s four-star rating. But without ANCAP requiring these upgrades for the top score, would Hyundai (and any other car maker) continue to add safety to the same level? They’d argue they would, but one thing that is very clear about ANCAP is that it has played a major role in forcing the entire industry to lift its standards.

As Ms Hoorweg explained, since the latest testing procedures were introduced in 2020, scoring anything less than five-stars has been rare.

“ANCAP exists to encourage all manufacturers to offer the highest level of safety possible – in this case there is now a Palisade which provides a high level of safety equal to that of its segment peers,” she said.

“Of the 41 vehicles rated by ANCAP to the current 2020-2022 criteria, just three have achieved a rating shy of five stars (Hyundai Palisade, Mitsubishi Express and Citroen C4). This highlights that manufacturers are prioritising safety and are seeking to provide their customers with the safest vehicles they can.  Four other Hyundai models were rated during this period and all achieved five star ratings.”

While there’s arguably still some work to do to help make safety ratings even more clear and understandable for consumers, by constantly raising the bar ANCAP is forcing car makers to include more and more safety and that’s ultimately a major win for car buyers.