EuroNCAP hands Skoda Kodiaq five stars, Suzuki Swift gets three stars

EuroNCAP released its crash safety ratings for four new cars tested. These are the Skoda Kodiaq, the Mini Countryman, the Nissan Micra and the Suzuki Swift. The Skoda Kodiaq and the Mini Countryman received the highest five-star ratings. The all-new 2017 Nissan Micra (not coming to India anytime soon) scored a four-star rating and got five stars with the safety pack. The upcoming Swift that is expected in India early next year, however, scored just three stars. The Swift with a safety pack managed to get a four-star rating, but the safety features that are included in this will not be included when the car comes to India.

Only the Kodiaq, the Countryman, and the Micra with safety pack received the five-star ratings

Coming back to the Skoda Kodiaq that will be launched in India later this year, it comes with a raft of safety features on-board, and we presume the same will be offered to consumers in India. It scored a high 92 percentile in adult occupant safety though child safety scored a lower 77 per cent. Autonomous emergency brakes that will come as standard fitment also helped the Kodiaq secure a higher safety rating. It worked quite well at urban speeds and showed low whiplash injury.

The Suzuki Swift scored reasonably good points for overall safety, and despite its lower 83 per cent points, it did well in the frontal offset impact tests, as well as the side impact, full-width rigid barrier, rear crash impact, side barrier and side-pole impact tests. What pulled its ratings down is the design of the rear seats that exacerbated whiplash injury. The Swift, nonetheless even in its standard variant, offers frontal airbags for both driver and passenger, in addition to side airbags for the head and chest. What it may not have in India are the autonomous emergency brakes which are present in a safety pack offered to European consumers. Another interesting addition is the seat belt reminder warning which is available for both front and rear passengers. Whether the system will be offered for both front and rear passengers in India is yet to be seen. Safety assistance systems gave it a lowly 25 per cent score.

The Mini Countryman got a five-star rating, scoring a high 90 per cent for adult occupant safety and a strong 80 per cent for child safety. However, the Countryman did show some discrepancies in the full-frontal impact tests with marginal protection to the chest area. It also had adequate safety systems to give it a higher 51 per cent for safety assist systems which also include a driver set speed limiter as standard.
The all-new Nissan Micra, which isn't coming to India anytime soon, scored four stars for the standard variant while another variant offered with additional safety features got all five stars.