Two Five-Star Ratings In Latest NCAP Tests

Ford's new Mondeo and VW's all-new Tiguan have emerged as the two latest new vehicles to claim the top five-star rating in the most recent round of Euro NCAP crash safety tests. The Mondeo increases Ford's portfolio of five-star rated NCAP cars to four, joining the five-star Focus, Galaxy and S-MAX models. The Tiguan becomes the fifth member to receive the top rating in the Volkswagen range, which touts the Golf, Touran, Passat, Touareg and now Tiguan, among its crash safety stars.

Ford's Mondeo includes a number of as-standard safety features including driver knee airbag and a retractable steering column, allowing the driver more space in the event of impact. The Mondeo notched up 35 points for adult occupancy (five star), 39 points for child occupancy (inversely four star) and a two-star 18-point pedestrian rating. The Ford's five-star rating matches the outgoing Citroen C5, Renault Laguna and Peugeot 407 models on adult occupancy.

The Volkswagen Tiguan comes with all the standard safety features NCAP expect of it, lacking only the Mondeo's driver knee airbag. VW were praised for both a maximum scoring in side impact tests and the improvement of the dashboard against impact, however NCAP remained critical of the impact risk to the steering column. Despite this, a 34 point scoring ensured a five-star rating, with 39 points also being scored on child occupancy (four star) and a 17-point two-star pedestrian rating.

Also tested in this latest batch of NCAP tests were high-scoring four-star rated models. Hyundai's i30 hatchback scored an impressive 33 points, narrowly missing out on the coveted five-star rating for adult occupancy, while Volkswagen's second model tested, the Caddy, also scored four-stars (27 points). For more information on these or any tested cars, head over to euroncap.com.