The solitary Christmas star

The new Suzuki Swift has been given a one star ANCAP safety rating. And the out-going Swift has five stars.

This has thrown up new questions about the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP), as the exact same car was awarded four stars from Japan’s equivalent independent safety authority.

And the cars get a three star rating in Europe.

It appears the new Suzuki Swift has being penalised by ANCAP for its specification levels, which are different from its European counterpart.

A spokesperson for ANCAP says there are structural differences between the European and Australian models. The main difference between the European Swift and the one sold in Australia, Japan and New Zealand is the lack of absorption bars around the radiator, and one on each side of the wheel-arch.

This omission has led ANCAP to score the new Swift at 47 per cent for adult occupant protection and 59 per cent for child occupant protection.

Its collision avoidance systems scored 54 per cent.

But the new Swift has a lot more active safety technologies than the previous five-star rated car. It gets:

+ Autonomous emergency braking (AEB) with motorcycle and cyclist detection.

+ Lane keeping assist.

+ Adaptive cruise control.

+ Blind spot monitoring.

+ Rear cross-traffic alert.

+ A reversing camera.

Suzuki Australia boss Michael Pachota says: “The Swift has been developed with the consideration of driving performance, comfort, emission levels, fuel efficiency, safety, and affordability.

“The development of the latest generation model has been aligned with the same philosophy. We have constantly been providing feedback to Suzuki Motor Corporation on voices, opinion and information of customers, media or any other sources in the markets for the benefit of future model planning of Suzuki Motor Corporation.

“The latest generation Swift offers considerably more safety assist features than the previous generation and the distributors are always committed to importing the highest specified models made available to their markets.”

IN JAPAN

The Japanese safety authority, JNCAP, scored the Japanese Swift (which is structurally identical to Australia’s model) 88.70 points out of 89 for preventive safety performance and 81/100 for collision safety performance.

In that same report, the new Suzuki Swift scored:

• Four out of five (4/5) in full-wrap frontal collision test (driver’s seat).
• 5/5 in full-wrap frontal collision test (rear passenger’s seat).
• 4/5 in offset frontal collision test (driver’s seat).
• 3/5 in offset frontal collision test (rear passenger’s seat).
• 5/5 in side collision test (driver’s seat).
• 5/5 in neck injury protection rear-end collision performance test (driver’s and passenger’s seat).

with Alborz Fallah