News : EuroNCAP latest – 4 and 5-stars for the Brits

Euro NCAP’s fifth and last launch of 2011 presents the results for 14 new cars, with the MG6, Jaguar XF scoring four stars. But the Range Rover Evoque stole the show brilliantly for the Brits by scoring a full five stars straight out of the box.

Range Rover Evoque is officially an NCAP five-star car
Range Rover Evoque is officially an NCAP five-star car

The MG6’s four star rating is a creditable result for the UK assembled Chinese hatchback – a solid first effort that matches what Rover achieved with the 75 (albeit under less tough testing conditions) back in 1999. EuroNCAP stated that this reflected the Chinese manufacturers’ desire to improve the safety record, with Michiel van Ratingen, Euro NCAP Secretary General, saying: ‘These results mark a milestone for the Chinese automotive industry. It is a clear sign that Chinese car makers are building on recent experiences and rapidly investing in better vehicle safety. Even with the upcoming increased demands, five stars are expected to be within reach soon.’

As part of Euro NCAP Advanced’s mission to reward advanced systems, the safety organization has assessed a number of new technologies offered on recently tested models. Rewards are given to safety innovations for which the car maker has demonstrated significant safety benefits for consumers. Ford is rewarded for its Driver Alert and Forward Alert systems on the Focus, making the car the first that offers four rewarded technologies. Mercedes-Benz is rewarded for Attention Assist and Collision Prevention Assist, Opel for Adaptive Forward Lighting and Volkswagen for City Emergency Brake.

Details on these results can now be found on the EuroNCAP website.

Jaguar XF (MY 2012) crash video

 

[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9zHfnqd38o[/tube]

MG6 crash video

 

[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRIZRKU29IE[/tube]

Range Rover Evoque crash video

 

[tube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltyzg7F4Z7Q[/tube]

Gallery

 

Keith Adams

59 Comments

  1. Very good results for the MG 6, but I think that Jaguar XF had to get 5 stars. And Range Rover Evoque went very well.

    PS Today I did a test drive in Evoque and saw that it is a very good and lovely car.

  2. The stars thing is a bit of oddity really as you get loads of points for warning lights. Actual structural rigidity though important does not get you five stars. In other words like many things it’s actually a bit of a fiddle. If you fill your car with warnings, lights, buzzers and make it structurally safe and add loads of airbags it will get 5 stars but actually a 4 star car can be just as good if not better in an actual accident.

  3. For a car that costs as much as an XF and competes in the sector it does, 4 stars is just not good enough. Nice though it is the XF always comes across as a “nearly” car. Like a lot of British cars historically, brilliantly conceived but not properly developed or finished off.

  4. “Actual structural rigidity though important does not get you five stars.”

    Although making a car like a tank isn’t the be all and end all. It’s all about absorbing impacts and dissipating the force.

    I’d agree though you’d expect the XF to get full marks, after all the MG6 get’s 4, so in effect if you’re looking for a safe car you may as well buy the 6 as it’s a lot cheaper but just as safe as the XF.

    Would be interesting to see what happens to a Tata Nano in one of these tests, for the price you wouldn’t expect it to do well, but out of curiosity it would be worth seeing how it faired.

  5. but don’t forget Paul, the floorpan structure is based on the old S-type which was conceived back in the early 90’s. The main mods being the sports car subframes and suspension system. The main reason for this was down to the fact that they needed to quickly develop a new 5’er rival but with so very little money and time available. If they had both of those commodities, the chassis would have been all new and aluminium. Rest assured, the next XF will be way ahead of the game but until the end of the product cycle the current car should suffice. Besides, there are still some great features (one of which I worked on with Autoliv on the X350- the active passenger airbag system), so the four stars is still pretty good.

  6. Don’t forget that the NCAP “rules” have changed over the years also. So where a car may have been a 5 star car before, it could lose a star now because of all of the other things that NCAP think should be fitted to cars in order to make the occupants safer.

    I know that the injury results for the Jag and MG6 are well within the European Regulations and that’s whey they’re on the road. The NCAP stuff is a series of items that are put together and if you’ve now not got lots of silly systems on there with lots of warning lamps, you can lose stars “just because”. Collision prevention and forward alert systems are, in my humble opinion a waste of time because at the end of the day, it’s the driver that should be the forward alert programme and collision prevention mechanism because they are the prople pointing the car down the road in the first place.

    There is too much focus on these “nanny-tronics” now and the real item that needs to be look at, is the driver and their capabilities. You can have all of the systems under the sun, but it does not prevent what is happening with the “nut behind the wheel”.

    The Rover 75 was a 5 star car when it was tested but because it didn’t put curtain bags in as standard, it had its 5th start chopped off – it didn’t need the curtain bags as it passed the tests without it, but because they weren’t fitted, it was penalised – it was still better that a BMW 3 Series, Merc C class, Jag X type to name a few!

    Although the NCAP work is good and it brings attention to what goes on out there in the big wide world, it is a marketing tool for people. It’s not a legislative test that makes it legal to be on the road – that is carried out way before NCAP get their hands on it.

    Oh, and for those interested, I witnessed a Tata Nano crash at MIRA a good while back and it flew through its crash test with excellent results. Just search for Tata Nano crash on the web and you’ll pronbably find the crash videos and some articles that were published by the IMechE and other motoring organisations like Autocar.

  7. My C3 only gets four stars – despite getting very high scores for passenger safety – because PSA don’t fit stability control as standard. I hate stability control personally, it makes the car behave erratically during a skid. Also they test one with a full roof – most have the Visodrive windscreen.

    The MG6 – if you study the video and read the data – actually does very well. Better than the Evoque in some regards. Also of note is the Geely; two years. Two years, and we’re getting four-star safety (with points docked generally for lack of ESP/Airbag diagrams matching NCAP’s specifications rather than structural failings) from China. How long did it take for GM to get up to speed when Renault were leading the pack?

    Unfortunately “Four Stars” doesn’t make for much of an advertising headline. It’s not campaign material – but it’s dealer education material, and it’s one less thing to worry about being asked; when a customer asks about safety, that result can be shown with confidence.

  8. Persoanlly I think far too much emphasis is on the accident, and far to little on avoiding the accident in the first place

  9. Fair play to MG!

    After the ‘Brilliance’ crash test video, wasn’t expecting much from the little 6, but 4 stars on a debut shows the work that has been put in to engineering integrity.

    XF getting 4 stars doesn’t bother me. Had a slight increase across the % scores. People didn’t seem bothered that the pre-facelift 5 series had 4 stars, still sold well.

    Let’s not forget the 1.5 rating that the E36 got either
    http://www.euroncap.com/tests/bmw_3_series_1997/15.aspx
    Didn’t stop sales, but the little Rover 100 was highlighted in the press, as if it was being fed the story from somewhere….

  10. Indeed…

    Check out the 1997 Renault Clio and Fiat Seicento 🙂

    But to be fair, the Rover 100’s offset performance was shocking. But it was designed to do well in the 30mph head-on, and at that, it was exceptionally good – in its day…

  11. Euro NCAP like most things with Euro in them is merely an attempt to make certain central european manufacturers look better than they really are by including things that have little or no safety relevance. Congratulations to JLR though.

  12. Why is this news article referring to “MG6” and “Brits” in the same sentence? The MG6 is not British. It is not even an MG.

    We let our British-owned car industry wither and die, and now we live in cloud cuckoo land by pretending otherwise.

    • @Simon

      Sorry to be pernickety, but I didn’t actually use ‘MG6’ and ‘Brits’ in the same sentence. And spoke about Chinese manufacturers…

      On the MG6…
      1) It was designed, engineered and styled in the UK. And final assembly is in the UK. British people screw it together.
      2) What does the badge say on the nose? I didn’t misread it did I? Is it a DeLorean6? A Zastava6? A Tofas6? That’s not marque elitism I hope, because we don’t do that on AROnline. Face it, we don’t really have grounds to, given the soap opera it’s centred on. *Cough, cough* CityRover *Cough, cough” Triumph Acclaim etc., etc…

  13. @Richard Kilpatrick

    “Stewart: Are you talking about Euro NCAP or MG’s UK launch and marketing?”

    I wish I’d said that!

  14. Wonder how a 240 estate would fare!

    Probably would break the test equipment I reckon. A good friends dad had a diabetic incident and passed out while he was driving along a road in this 240 auto.

    After weaving around he mounted the kerb, destroyed a bus shelter (no one there thank god) and came to rest after hitting a phone kiosk and turning it rhombus shape.

    Engine was still idling whenst he came round!

  15. @Simon

    “It is not even an MG.”

    Difficult one to quantify in my opinion. What is an MG?

    Some roadsters, the MGB, MGF/TF, which hopefully will get replaced in the future by an MX5 competitor.
    (The midget itself was a badge engineered Austin-Healey).

    The rest of history, MG was a tuner of other marque’s cars, Morris, Austin, and most recently, Rover.

    Rovers remains are now Roewes. This MG is based on the Roewe, which the marketing team of SAIC decided not to market in the UK, hence we only get the well-known MG brand version.

    In my opinion, they are as MG as an MG ZS (which itself was a tuned and badged version of a car based on a Honda!).

  16. @Keith Adams

    “Sorry to be pernickety, but I didn’t actually use ‘MG6′ and ‘Brits’ in the same sentence.”

    I read it again (properly this time) and you are quite right; not in the same sentence. And I would never accuse you of being pernickety.

    You did however refer to Brits in the title and then the first car you mentioned in the sub-title was the MG6, so I guess I inferred some meaning that you did not actually say.

    So, we are agreed: THE MG6 IS NOT BRITISH. (fanfare sounds, and that is MG Motor’s new marketing campaign slogan sorted.)

  17. @Simon

    Nope never said that either. Was just clearing up your inaccuracy.

    As I said, it’s *assembled* here, was designed, engineered and styled here – so it’s as British as they get these days in an international automotive industry.

    Thing that annoys me increasingly about all this is that I seem to be doing more MG marketing and PR than than are doing themselves…

  18. “It is not even an MG.”

    Change the f***ing record! It’s an MG get over it.

    “The midget itself was a badge engineered Austin-Healey”

    Actually that’s often forgotten, the Frogeye Sprite was out long before the Midget, it basically just got restyled front and rear ends.

  19. @Dennis

    “Change the f***ing record! It’s an MG get over it.”

    Dennis, you are swearing (and much too filthily for a website popular with youngsters) at a lifelong fan of the BMC 1100 range. Do you realise how many decades I had to listen to disparaging comments from “true MG fans” about the MG 1100/1300?

    Well, now it is my turn to give my opinion on the current crop of (so-called) MG saloon cars, so I will not be changing the record any time soon. So YOU better get over THAT!

    (p.s. is this all because it said “Dream on Dennis” a couple of weeks ago in another comments section?)

  20. Sorry guys, 5 EuroNCAP Stars means alot to new car buyers. As almost all new models from Europe, Japan and Korea have achieved 5 stars in resent years, not having 5 stars is a handicap.

  21. I have to ask, because i am a sucker for an argument, but why does simon bother coming here when all he does is moan…

    As far as i am concerned, and has been said many times, the car was designed here in the UK, it was engineered here in the UK, and it received final assembly and testing here in the UK.

    So do we take it that you consider the Toyota’s and Nissans that are built here to not be British, 10% of UKPLC exports are motoring related so the UK still has a great presence in the world of automotive excellence.

    I personally dont care that people may have had arguments 50 years ago about a badge engineered car, that was then and it is not relevant now, the MG badge is back, and it is being placed on a range of cars, regardless if they are Roewe cars or not, the MG badge is all that matters, i was impressed with the 6 when i drove the hell out of it on Prodrives test track.

    As for Ncap means a lot to new car buyers, NO, it does not, i bet you well in excess of 70% of people dont even know about it or care, the main things are colour, brand, models and toys and now possibly economy, safety has and always will come low down for the majority of people as that vast majority always assume they wont have an accident as they are better drivers than everyone else.

    I had two Rover 100’s, the only reason i didnt have a third was they pulled the plug on it, when we bought our X-Type and XF we never worried about NCAP, when we bought the Meriva (horrid heap) we never worried about NCAP.

    As for Simon, you obviously from your constant comments, dont like the 6, or the new MG company and they way it is operating, that is entirely your choice, however when you place comments on here that are incorrect, and have been corrected by the site owner and other members, it becomes wearing when you dont take that on board and admit that you have made mistakes.

  22. I wonder if Powertrain’s G-series diesel intellectual property is still kicking about – and if so, where it went.

  23. @ Chris O Post 6 — I agree that he old XF seems to have been used and I have queried this with NCAP as that version has had very little in updates to the previous version they tested, the new 2012 would still have gotten a 4 as they do not like the version of speed limiter on the XF and a couple of other bits, however these are being rectified for the next generation…..

    In the meantime Jaguar are having enough to do with the launch of the new XFW or Sportsbreak as they are calling it.

  24. Hi Richard, the G series would have been a great engine at the time, however a vast sum would have been needed to keep it competitive and class leading, as for where it is i would assume it went with everything else – a Chinese takeaway.

  25. “(p.s. is this all because it said “Dream on Dennis” a couple of weeks ago in another comments section?)”

    Hadn’t seen or at least don’t remember seeing that, so no. It’s just getting plain boring seeing the same pointless comments “it’s not an MG”, it’s clearly an MG for an number of obvious reasons that have already been covered by various other posts.

    ““…so it’s as British as they get these days…”
    I’m actually crying right now.”

    Sorry i didn’t realise YOU were one of the easily offended youngsters…. this was never a personal attack, however as you seem to have made it one.

    “Sorry guys, 5 EuroNCAP Stars means alot to new car buyers. As almost all new models from Europe, Japan and Korea have achieved 5 stars in resent years, not having 5 stars is a handicap.”
    I agree the star system makes a good headline in brochures, and even though as has already been said last years 5 star is the same as this years 4 star rating because the tests have been toughened up, this would be a hard point to explain to joe public when they’re in the show room. The star rating is never updated, it’s only carried out when a car is launched or re-submitted by a manufacturer. Another thing the NCAP tests impact on are insurance premiums. NCAP is basically run by the insurance industry, and insurers use the test results to calculate risk. Ie. they look at it along the lines of if you run down a pedestrian on a crossing and the car has poor pedestrian impact ratings then they will potentially have to pay out more in a personal injury claim.

  26. Sonalika in India is using the G series, would Ricardo or SAIC now own the IP? Oh and didn;t an MG employee say there is stock room full of crated G series sat in Longbridge…

  27. @JagBoy

    “..when you place comments on here that are incorrect, and have been corrected by the site owner and other members, it becomes wearing when you dont take that on board and admit that you have made mistakes…”

    I think you will see that I admitted to my earlier mistake immediately when Keith Adams pointed it out, so it is your comment that is incorrect.

  28. At the end of the day chaps, the MG 6 just aint selling, British or not British, or English, or Anglo-Chino, or whatever hits your bullseye. The fact the boys at Longbridge aren’t even in the office pretty much says it all! Crazy really. Maybe they’re a bit bored turning up and not selling anything and listening to people like Simon moaning about them not being British, or a real MG(God knows what that means!?)

    Well done Keith for keeping the things in the news, you should take Guy Jones’ job, seriously!

  29. @Dennis

    “It’s just getting plain boring seeing the same pointless comments “it’s not an MG”…”

    If you are bored by my comments, you can simply ignore them. The fact that you get so flustered by them suggests that they are touching a raw nerve. In my experience, raw nerves usually mask some form of hypocrisy.

    In any case, why should there not be room for more than one point of view?

  30. What makes an MG? Hmmm…there have been so many MGs over the years and just about the one element they had in common was the badge. I guess an MG is an MG if it’s made by the owner of the marque which, currently, is SAIC. Like Keith says, there’s a lot of British input into the MG6 and, given the way of today’s auto-world, I guess we should be glad of that. The thing about MG enthusiasts is that they’re highly selective: they’re glad to wax lyrical about the MGA, the MGB, the ZA and ZB Magnettes, and the more recent Z cars and so on, but they turn their noses up at the MG 1100/1300 and the Farina Magnettes and now the MG6. But the truth is they’re all MGs.

  31. I used to drive an MG Maestro EFi in the late 80’s and used to get all the comments about it “not being a real MG” too. On the basis that it was a proper performance version of a standard car originating from the Cowley factory, I argued that it was more of an MG than most and it least it was competitive; something which MG hadn’t been for years at that stage!

    However, my feelings on the MG6 have been expressed elsewhere in detail, so I won’t touch on that again here! 😉

  32. “The thing about MG enthusiasts is that they’re highly selective: they’re glad to wax lyrical about the MGA, the MGB, the ZA and ZB Magnettes, and the more recent Z cars and so on, but they turn their noses up at the MG 1100/1300 and the Farina Magnettes and now the MG6. But the truth is they’re all MGs.”

    I’m with you on that, enthusiasts/Owners will tell you the car they had or have is an MG, but give you various arguments as to why other cars aren’t MG’s.

  33. “If you are bored by my comments, you can simply ignore them. The fact that you get so flustered by them suggests that they are touching a raw nerve. In my experience, raw nerves usually mask some form of hypocrisy.”

    And if you don’t like the current MG’s you could just bugger off to a website that doesn’t deal with them. You seem to constantly post “it’s not an MG” you clearly lack the imagination to come up with anything else.

  34. The badge says MG, it doesn’t say Ford or Vauxhall does it?

    You can’t really define an MG, over the years it’s been a sporty 2 seater, a sporty 4 seater, a sporty 5 seater. It’s been a sporty saloon, a sporty hardtop, a sporty coupe, a sporty hatchback, a sporty convertible, but at the end of the day an MG has always been a badge engineered vehicle really, with a couple of exceptions, most notably the B.

    It’s odd that people that are saying MG isn’t British aren’t also going round saying them bloody Jaguars (Land Rovers), not British you know, bloody Indian!!

    I wonder if those Mercedes and BMWs not built in Germany are still German? I bet their owners say they’re German despite them being nailed together by Bubba and his Redneck cousin, as I expect do most other people.

  35. “I wonder if those Mercedes and BMWs not built in Germany are still German? I bet their owners say they’re German despite them being nailed together by Bubba and his Redneck cousin, as I expect do most other people.”

    Exactly, as i’ve said a few times before, few car buyers realise or care where they car is built. BL themselves used to build cars overseas, Belgian Mini anyone? Italian Allegro?

  36. hmm.. i’d love to know if Simon’s actually driven one of the new MG’s. I very much doubt he has. If he had, he’d realise that the ride and handling still provides the bubbling fizz that an enthusiastic MG driver needs to spiritedly but safely enjoy himself.. That’s the true MG way. Given a hotter powerplant the car would have been more fizzy but use of the tech available, the punitive emissions regulations, and the need to, effectively start from scratch, means we need to be much more patient at what the engineers can deliver. My only gripe with this car, and indeed with the company, is just the marketing -or lack thereof..

  37. Rob C:

    ” It’s odd that people that are saying MG isn’t British aren’t also going round saying them bloody Jaguars (Land Rovers), not British you know, bloody Indian!! ”

    Okay, I know that there’s a good chance that I’m wasting my breath, but I’ll try and explain it again:

    The MG is partially designed here, manufactured and largely assembled in China, with just enough final assembly work to fool the less critical into thinking that it’s actually assembled here.

    With Jaguar and Land Rover it is completely different. Nearly all of the design and development work is done here, with manufacturing and assembly, through virtually every stage, carried out in the UK along with substantial sourcing of components and sub assemblies in the UK. Even the newly opened facilities in India, to supply local market, are largely being fed in CKD kit form from Halewood!

    Strangely, I’m not too bothered who owns the company as long as the quality of the management is good. The Indians seems to proving to be rather good; judging by the efforts in marketing the MG6, the jury is still out on the Chinese….

  38. John, it’s called sarcasm 😉

    I care not where the parent company is based, and I care not where they are screwed together. If it’s a car I like I will buy it irrespective, as I’m sure a great many other people do with little regard for the complexities behind the actual badge. My modern car is a Ford, some would see it as a British make, I would hope everyone here would know Ford is an American company with worldwide factories and bases, and my car was thrown together in Belgium. I don’t care as its a car we wanted and we’re happy with it.

  39. “Ford, some would see it as a British make”

    That always makes me chuckle, when people speak of Ford (and Vauxhall) as being ‘British’.

  40. Rob C:

    ” John, it’s called sarcasm

    I care not where the parent company is based, and I care not where they are screwed together. If it’s a car I like I will buy it irrespective, as I’m sure a great many other people do with little regard for the complexities behind the actual badge. My modern car is a Ford, some would see it as a British make, I would hope everyone here would know Ford is an American company with worldwide factories and bases, and my car was thrown together in Belgium. I don’t care as its a car we wanted and we’re happy with it. ”

    You not caring where your car is built is an entirely valid point of view and I accept that. However, what concerns me is that on a site who’s slogan is “Loving great British cars…” there is a huge amount of column inches and goodwill given to a car that’s essentially made in China simply because they picked the brand up for a song and they lease a tiny fraction of the old Longbridge site to do some largely insignificant assembly work!

    By all means judge the MG6 purely on its merits (I certainly wish people would) but lets stop treat the claims that this car is British with the contempt that they deserve.

    Incidentally, talking of judging the MG6 entirely on merit and checking the Euroncap video again, has anyone else noticed that (unlike other virtually every other modern design) the A pillar fails at two points during the offset frontal impact? This is not good for a new design….

  41. Above:

    ” By all means judge the MG6 purely on its merits (I certainly wish people would) but lets stop treat the claims that this car is British with the contempt that they deserve. ”

    Sorry, that should read:

    ” By all means judge the MG6 purely on its merits (I certainly wish people would) but lets start treating the claims that this car is British with the contempt that they deserve. “

  42. “lease a tiny fraction of the old Longbridge site”

    Well it’s not exactly tiny, it’s still about 1/3rd of the site, which was massive and largely un-used in the first place. They probably still use a Greater percentage of the original Longbridge site than Ford use of the original Dagenham plant.

  43. Dennis:

    ““lease a tiny fraction of the old Longbridge site”

    Well it’s not exactly tiny, it’s still about 1/3rd of the site, which was massive and largely un-used in the first place. They probably still use a Greater percentage of the original Longbridge site than Ford use of the original Dagenham plant.”

    I’m finding it hard to find where you’re getting the 1/3rd figure from. The only evidence that I have is via this link:

    http://www.longbridgebirmingham.co.uk/grand-plan.html

    What evidence do you have to support the 1/3rd figure?

  44. “Well MG, there’s your TV ad campaign, don’t waste it.”

    Have I eentered the twilight zone??! In what way would MG want to use the fact that the car has got four out of five NCAP stars as a marketing plus. As has already been pointed out the medium family car market is sensitive to the NCAP rating, all the main players in the segment are NCAP 5!

    Now we can make excuses about how 4 stars is tougher then 5 was but in the end your average car buyer does not know or care about that. The car is already overpriced in comparison to its competitors, somebody walking into the dealer is hardly going to be impressed by an advert stating “4 out of 5 NCAP stars”. No manufacturer is going to use this as a positive marketing point!

    People need get real, if the MG6 is going to have any chance of selling it needs to:

    a) Have some proper advertising!!!
    B) Reduction in price to something more realistic plus a respectable finance offer.
    C) A diesel engine … it does matter now C02 is so critical to tax bands in new cars!
    D) A five year warranty.
    E) Not allow the NCAP rating anywhere near any marketing.

    It doesn’t matter one jot that it is remarkably dynamic and British designed! The British car buyer no longer has a fear of anything foreign built! They are like baby deer “easily spooked”! MG/SAIC has some way to go if they hope to persuade Ford Focus man into it…

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