Safety

Enough is enough – serious questions have to be raised about Australia’s independent crash testing authority.The Australasian New Car Assessment Program, better known as ANCAP, has been a beacon of safety for the past three decades.And while it has no doubt been a driving force in ensuring Australians and New Zealanders drive safer cars, in recent years I have noticed some troubling, confusing decisions that have raised concerns in my journalistic head.And the latest example is perhaps the most troubling of all – ANCAP’s decision to not independently crash test Australia’s most popular passenger car, despite the car maker acknowledging it is missing key safety technology required to get ANCAP’s maximum five-star safety rating.I’m talking about the new Toyota RAV4, which the Japanese giant admits is missing key safety elements required for a five-star rating under the new-for-2026 testing protocols.This is because the RAV4 was meant to launch in late 2025 and Toyota designed it only to meet the previous testing protocols.While you can certainly question Toyota’s ‘just in time’ approach, and the fact that if Toyota had met those requirements it would have received a five-star rating that it could use for the the majority of the new RAV4’s showroom life, even as other new SUVs launched from now onwards would require a higher standard of safety (but that is an ongoing problem for ANCAP and not unique to this situation).Importantly, Toyota has said updates are coming to ensure the RAV4 meets the new five-star standard, but hasn’t made it clear precisely when that will happen or what those changes are.What is most troubling is that ANCAP has not publicly stated when, or even if, the RAV4 will be crash-tested by ANCAP or its sister organisation, Euro NCAP.A statement provided by ANCAP and attributed to Chief Executive Officer Carla Hoorweg on said: “As with any new model entering the Australian or New Zealand market, the Toyota RAV4 is a potential candidate for ANCAP assessment.“Details of models scheduled for testing and rating are not publicly released until assessments are complete.“We are aware of Toyota’s planned update to the RAV4 later this year. Until independent safety testing has been conducted, the updated model will remain unrated.“Given the RAV4’s popularity, ANCAP encourages fleets and consumers to consider the availability of an independent safety rating when making purchasing decisions.”That’s sound advice, people should definitely consider the safety of an unrated car.But it doesn’t answer the question of why ANCAP won’t simply crash test the RAV4 now.It was the biggest selling passenger vehicle in Australia in 2025, so it is an obvious choice for families.ANCAP is funded by governments, motoring clubs and other industry bodies, but it does not have infinite resources to crash test every new model that comes into the market – especially as each test requires between six and seven cars to be written-off as part of the process.Therefore, the majority of the testing is carried out on cars supplied by the car brands.It’s a mutually beneficial relationship – the car brand (hopefully) gets a five-star rating to advertise, while ANCAP gets another crash test to promote and consumers get an independent assessment of the safety of what cars they are buying. It’s a win-win-win situation.Except in this case, because Toyota is, understandably, not about to submit a car it knows won’t pass all the tests with flying colours. And ANCAP is seemingly happy to wait until that time.As time in crash labs is in-demand and usually booked months or even years in advance, CarsGuide understands Toyota has already arranged for the updated RAV4 to be crashed by Euro NCAP later in 2026.But why wait? Why is ANCAP happy to give Toyota this time to sell an unrated version of the RAV4? This is fundamentally a bad thing for you – the Australian consumer (and taxpayer).Without knowing specifically when the updated RAV4 will arrive in Australia, let's use an example of six months. In 2025 Toyota sold 24,034 examples of its mid-size SUV in that span.That means, if it takes six months for Toyota to update the car and get it into showrooms, potentially more than 20,000 Australians will be buying an unrated car.I completely understand ANCAP’s budgetary limitations, it simply cannot afford to go out and buy six or seven examples of every unrated vehicle.But surely, if it is going to spend its own money on crash testing specific models, surely you start at the top of the sales charts and work your way down?Some of the cars that ANCAP has self-funded crash tests for in the past include the Hyundai Palisade, Hyundai i30 Sedan and Suzuki Swift.Combined, those three models sold 12,303 examples in 2025, compared to 51,947 RAV4.Far be it for me to tell ANCAP how to run its business, but it would seem like, from a return-on-investment perspective, it should be looking to help the greatest number of people for its direct funding, and crash testing the best-selling models would seem like the best way to do that.To be clear, I’m not accusing ANCAP and Toyota of collusion or favouritism, but this is simply a very strange situation and a very hard ‘square to circle’, so to speak.As the organisation states on its own website: “ANCAP plays a vital role not only informing consumers of the differences in safety performance of new vehicles entering the Australian and New Zealand vehicle fleets.”Also stating: “ANCAP is Australia and New Zealand's independent voice on vehicle safety.“We crash test cars and conduct on-track and on-road performance assessments on safety features and technologies then publish a simple star rating or grading to indicate relative safety performance.“Over the last three decades we have published independent safety ratings for thousands of new vehicle makes, models and variants. These independent safety ratings and gradings are used to compare the relative safety between vehicles of similar size and have become a critical factor in vehicle selection for private consumers and fleet buyers.”Except in this case, where one of the best-selling vehicles in the country has been given extra time to prepare and leaves thousands of customers set to miss out on safety features that ANCAP itself has deemed important (hence the updated 2026 protocols).What is most troubling to me is, what message does this send to the industry and to consumers?Can a car maker launch a less-well-equipped model with an attention-grabbing initial price, sell it for a few months (or longer) and then add safety and submit it for ANCAP testing? That would be a dangerous precedent to set, in my opinion, but in the future car brands will be able to point to this situation and claim that it is simply following past form.Again, to be crystal clear, I’m not accusing Toyota of deliberately deploying this as a tactic, it seems like a genuine production-related issue.But ANCAP, as the independent safety body that it is, should step in and crash test the RAV4 that is on sale today to give consumers a clearer choice.

The car Toyota is calling the “safest car” in its line-up has launched this month without an official safety rating from the nation’s independent vehicle safety authority.The 2026 Toyota RAV4, the new generation of not only the brand’s most popular car globally but the most popular passenger car in Australia, has launched without a rating from ANCAP (the Australasian New Car Assessment Program) after the brand was caught out by changing safety standards.Originally set for a late 2025 launch and designed to score full marks in ANCAP’s 2025 testing procedures, the RAV4 was delayed until 2026, which means a new set of testing criteria has been introduced.It means the car that’s got the best chance of turning Toyota’s rare sales dip is missing a key selling-point for not only private customers, but more crucially for commercial buyers including fleets that have requirements for five-star ANCAP ratings.The RAV4 will be updated later this year ahead of its eventual testing, with some changes to the car apparently needing to be physical to score top marks against new criteria. Toyota Product Planning Specialist Peter Phan wouldn’t reveal what the changes would be specifically, but said they would apply to “passive and active safety systems, but structurally the vehicle will not change”. The changes to the RAV4 later this year won’t be able to be retrofitted to cars already purchased.It means cars bought before the update will remain unrated, and customers will have no way to know if their RAV4 would actually achieve five stars under ANCAP’s testing.It’s an unusual move for ANCAP to agree to delay testing a new model, especially for one so popular, as it means thousands of new RAV4s will be untested.While Toyota’s new Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Franchise Operations John Pappas said the brand expects sales of the new-gen RAV4 to stay healthy despite the lagging safety rating. He said the brand will sell about 40,000 RAV4s in 2026.“Before we wholesaled the car, we had about 10,000 orders already taken,” Pappas told CarsGuide at the new generation RAV4’s launch.“So that gives us a good indication on the demand at that early point before actually launching it.”He said the lack of ANCAP rating isn’t as important as making sure customers are aware of the RAV4’s safety credentials.“The most important thing for us, first and foremost, is safety,” said Pappas.“This RAV vehicle, from a safety point of view, now becomes the safest car… in our line-up.“It's not only the safest RAV, but it's actually the safest car we've actually got in it from what it's got in it, from a package point of view. First car with the new multimedia, first car with the new Arene software, first car with Toyota Safety Sense 4.0.“For us, that's what's most important, because we know with these features and benefits in the vehicle, we know that customer safety is at that level.”Pappas added the brand is working closely with eventual customers of the RAV4 in the commercial sector, keeping them up to date with the progress and scheduling orders based on requirements for safety ratings.“With those fleets that have a five star ANCAP policy, we're working with those fleets very closely in terms of their orders, when they're placing their orders based on five-star. So we're very transparent. And that's what we do at Toyota, we're very transparent. “Number one is all about what safety is in the car. Number two, make sure we're transparent, and, you know, satisfy our customer.”Toyota seems extremely confident in the RAV4’s chances of achieving five stars under the new testing criteria, but with the update and testing yet to happen, we asked whether a four-star result would be unacceptable for Toyota.“It's not about four-star. It's about making sure that we satisfy what's important to our customer. That's what's important to us,” Pappas said.“And let's not forget, every single year, whether it's RAV, whether it's HiLux, whether it's another car, we have tech changes, we have minor changes, we have big changes.”While Pappas wouldn’t be drawn on how the brand would react to a result less than five stars, he implied Toyota’s regular updates to its models would address it as soon as possible.“And within those milestones, we always look at upgrading features and benefits on the car, whether it's safety, whether it's over-the-air updates, whether it's going to be aesthetic changes, whatever. “We continuously do that on every one of our cars. That's not new. So, yeah, later this year, there will be a tech change on RAV, but that's not new for us, yeah, and I just want to stress about the safety in the car.”

Hyundai has recalled thousands of examples of its Kona, Tucson, Santa Fe, Palisade and Ioniq 9 SUVs, as well as the Sonata sedan.It affects 3445 units for the 2025 model year in relation to a software issue with the digital driver display, according to a notice from the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications Sports and the Arts. “Due to a software issue, the Instrument Panel Cluster (IPC) may fail to illuminate the visual vehicle speed, fuel level and other critical safety information,” the notice reads.“A loss of safety system warnings whilst driving, could increase the risk of an accident causing injury or death to vehicle occupants, other road users and bystanders.”A spokesperson for Hyundai Australia said there have been no reported instances of the issue in Australia.The brand will contact owners of affected vehicles to arrange an appointment to rectify the issue via a software update. If the vehicle is Bluelink enabled, the update will be delivered automatically over-the-air (OTA).Hyundai has had a solid start to 2026, with models such as the Kona and Tucson some of the most popular SUVs in Australia currently. The brand recently recalled nearly 5000 examples of its Ioniq and Kona EVs earlier this month. 

The Federal Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communication and the Arts has issued a safety recall notice impacting close to 5000 Hyundai electric vehicles sold new in Australia from 2018 to 2023.

The Nissan Qashqai is among several models to learn their safety fate as part of the latest batch of Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) ratings.The updated Qashqai family SUV has received a four-star rating, down from the five-star rating awarded in 2017.The Qashqai maintained a high child protection rating of 91 per cent, but it saw substantial drops in the Adult Protection, Vulnerable User Protection as well as Safety Assist categories.The 78 per cent Adult Protection rating was in significant part due the front structure of the car presenting a moderate risk to occupants of oncoming vehicles in the frontal offset test.Its Vulnerable Road User Protection rating was at 68 per cent, while its Safety Assist rating was 62 per cent.The incoming Suzuki e-Vitara was also hit with a four-star rating.The e-Vitara was the first Suzuki to be tested by ANCAP since the Fronx compact SUV. The Fronx was subject to a major recall following its one-star rating, with ANCAP urging people to not travel in the rear seats of the car.With a 77 per cent Adult Protection rating, the e-Vitara had marginal protection for the driver’s chest and adequate protection for the passenger’s chest, with good protection elsewhere.The car was also marked down due to the lack of a centre airbag, according to ANCAP.The safety regulator’s Chief Executive Officer Carla Hoorweg acknowledged the safety improvement from Suzuki.“It’s encouraging to see improvements in safety performance across the market, this latest rating achieved by the e-Vitara is evidence Suzuki can produce a model that offers sound levels of safety performance,” Hoorweg said.There were new five-star ratings for the revamped Audi A3 hatchback and the Q3 compact SUV. The A3 was awarded 86 per cent for Adult Protection and 80 per cent for Child Occupant Protection, while the Q3 got 87 per cent and 86 per cent, respectively.The other car to earn a five-star rating was the updated Cupra Leon hatchback. It received 88 per cent for Adult Protection and 86 per cent for Child Protection, with 82 per cent each for Vulnerable Road User Protection and Safety Assist.

Are there any outstanding recalls on the 2024 Chery Tiggo?

I have a 2025 GWM Haval Jolion Lux purchased in December 2025. Firstly, the car is dangerous. The reason is its uncontrollable throttle modulation combined with a lucky-dip DSG can leave you flat footed in a roundabout or intersection, with uncertain outcomes.

I find it difficult to park as I never know how much throttle input I’m going to get in a low speed situation which makes you look like an absolute fool in the car park. How this car has been released onto the Australian market eludes me.

My first instance corresponding with the dealer was to explain how the car is behaving. I have since booked it in in a fortnight’s time but I hold little hope in resolving the problem from the dealer’s reaction. Researching online merely confirms all the problems I’ve got. It appears that the software written for this car in relation to throttle modulation has not been developed to the point that is acceptable to drive in a normal scenario. What can I do to resolve this?

Also, I have spoken to experts in aftermarket throttle controllers and their response was that their device has resolved appropriately 80 to 90 per cent of the problem in the Jolion, and said the factory data mapping was insufficiently developed. I am reluctant to go down this path because I’m not sure of the warranty implications.

Thousands of Hyundai i30 N units have been hit with an urgent recall, according to a notice from the Federal Government Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts. There are 7293 examples of the i30 N impacted by the recall for model years between 2017 and 2022.The recall concerns a manufacturing defect with the fuel pump causing engine stall.“Due to a manufacturing defect, the fuel control valve in the high-Pressure fuel pump could allow excess fuel to enter the pump. If this occurs, the engine could stall resulting in a sudden loss of motive power whilst driving,” the notice reads.“A sudden loss of motive power whilst driving may increase the risk of an accident causing injury or death to vehicle occupants.”A spokesperson for Hyundai Australia said there have been reported incidents of this issue occurring in Australia.The i30N affected by the recall has a 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol engine, producing 206kW and 392Nm.The latest i30 N hatch model continues to be powered by the same set-up, but it is not part of this recall. The Hyundai i30 has undergone a serious model reshuffle in Australia, with cheaper variants of the Czech-built hatch being pulled from the lineup due to import cost pressures.This leaves the i30 N-Line and N variants as the only options for buyers in showrooms.

The recently-launched Kia K4 hatchback has just been recalled in Australia due to a seat belt fault, according to a notice from the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts.It concerns 4817 units in the 2025 and 2026 model years. “The rear centre seat belt anchor buckle may have been incorrectly assembled,” the notice reads."As a result, the seat belt may not properly latch or operate as intended.“In the event of an accident, if the seat belt does not properly latch or operate as intended, it will increase the risk of injury or death to vehicle occupants.”A spokesperson for Kia Australia said there have been no reported incidents of the fault occurring in Australia yet. Owners of affected K4 models will be contacted by the brand and asked to make an appointment with a Kia dealer to have the rear middle set belt anchor buckle inspected, and replaced if needed, free of charge. The K4 was launched in Australia late last year and is available in hatch or sedan body shapes as a petrol-only model.It has made a solid impression in the market in its first few months and outsold the Hyundai i30 and Mazda 3 so far in 2026

Of the 113 primary and 173 sub-clause Australian Design Rule (ADR) standards for safety, anti-theft and emissions currently applied to new vehicles marketed in Australia one stands out as a regular sticking point for manufacturers.It’s ADR 34/03 - Child Restraint Anchorages and Child Restraint Anchor Fittings - originally gazetted in 1989 and most recently updated in 2017.It mandates a compliant ‘Upper Anchorage’ and ‘Upper Anchor Fitting’ (aka a top-tether point) for “each seating position in the ‘Second Row Seats’ equipped with an adult ‘Seatbelt Assembly’”.And this makes Australia a global stand-out. Although three top-tether anchorages are required in Canada and the USA, only two are mandated in Europe, and China has no specific demand for top-tether points. We strictly require a top tether anchor for all rear-seating positions, including the centre. In many markets, in concert with ISOFIX, use of the three-point seatbelt to help stabilise the seat and reduce twisting in a crash is deemed adequate.  But it sounds easy, right? Drill a hole in the parcel shelf or rear floor, bolt in a hook and the job’s done. Authorised restraint fitting stations do it all the time. Of course, it’s light years away from being that simple.The time, money and engineering focus required to homologate a centre rear top-tether for this market across a vast array of interior and rear seat arrangements is often a stumbling block for potential new model introductions.Specialised research and development required for certification of the strength and real world performance of reinforced mounting points will typically involve a full program including virtual and physical engineering as well as testing to destruction of rear seat modules or entire vehicles.Then there’s the time and cost of the compliance process, submitting required technical data  to the The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts that oversees the ADR regime.And a case-in-point is the Renault 5 E-Tech.Although it’s never been confirmed for local sale, Renault Australia has previously told CarsGuide it would “love to have the car here” as long as it “does the business case to get the investment for the unique Australian ADRs”.Having started European deliveries in late 2024, the R5 E-Tech is still a possibility for this market, but it’s a much longer shot than it was thanks in part to ADR 34/03.Speaking at this week’s launch of the Scenic E-Tech, Renault Australia General Manager Glen Sealey confirmed the R5 E-Tech was originally going to be a four-seater but a European tax change mid-way through the car’s development cycle saw it morph into a five-seater (thanks to additional subsidies for three seats in a rear bench).Suddenly, the need to homologate a top tether for the middle rear position threw a big spanner in the works for the car’s Australian market potential. Sealey estimates the prospective compliance cost at around 3 million ($4.9M).Also speaking at the launch, Renault S.A. Country Manager, Oceania Arnaud Mourgue confirmed Australia is now plugged into the brand’s relevant new model programs from day one, which minimises the chances of ADR compliance roadblocks. But other recent ADR 34/03-related hiccups include a temporary pause on sales of the Deepal E07 Multitruck to rectify a missing child seat restraint anchor in the rear.The Tesla Model 3’s 2024 update was paused early that year because of a rear-centre top-tether compliance issue and BYD Atto 3 deliveries were briefly paused in 2022 in light of child seat anchor point issues.There are other instances and who knows how many interesting EVs from China and elsewhere have been ruled out for Australian sale   A spokesperson for The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts told CarsGuide, “ADR 34/03 is likely to remain in force in its current form for the foreseeable future.”Which, depending on your perspective, means kids in capsules and car seats in Australia are doubly protected. Or onerous ADRs mean Aussie new car buyers are potentially missing out on exciting new products from around the globe.