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5+ things you didn’t know about ANCAP
Did you know that ANCAP crash researchers destroyed 378 dummies during 2016-17?
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You’ve seen the stickers on cars, but here are 5+ facts you didn’t know about the Australasian New Car Assessment Program, better known as ANCAP.
ANCAP and its ratings
Today, the gold standard for vehicles is a 5-star ANCAP safety rating. The top rating of five indicates that a car is at the pinnacle of crash performance, protection and prevention.
In 2016-17, ANCAP purposefully rammed, side-swiped and smashed 49 vehicles. Of those models, 37 had no crash rating previously. Only two cars, or 4% of those tested, received two stars, and the same number fell just shy of the best score with a 4-star accreditation. Around 320,000 vehicles sold will now receive a 5-star rating each year.
Contrast that with the lead up to the year 2000, where over 60% of cars would be judged to be a lacklustre 3-star or below performer. According to ANCAP figures, occupants of new cars experienced fatalities in 13% of crashes, versus 33% in older cars.
ANCAP expenditure
During 2016 and 2017, ANCAP’s crash testing generated the following costs:
How do ANCAP’s expenses weigh up? Every 15 minutes, someone in Australia or New Zealand loses their life in a car accident, which equates to over 35,000 people each year. These events are tragic for families and friends, but local communities also face costs related to these accidents of $70 million a day.
ANCAP’s scrap yard
To ascertain 2016-17 crash test ratings, ANCAP and NCAP completely destroyed 142 vehicles. Across the six test labs used, 378 dummies met their demise.
Most popular models
Internet users searched for the Ford Mustang, Toyota Corolla and Suzuki Swift ratings the most on ancap.com.au. The organisation estimates that half of all car buyers will check ANCAP crash ratings before purchasing a new vehicle.
ANCAP worldwide sister organisations
ANCAP is part of the broader New Car Assessment Program. It oversees ANCAP’s sister organisations, including the Russian ARCAP, India’s BNVSAP, C-NCAP in China, Euro NCAP, IIHS (United States), JNCAP in Japan, KNCAP in Korea and the Latin NCAP of South America. By working as part of this larger consortium, ANCAP is able to publish twice as many ratings per year.
Picture: Shutterstock
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