Land Rover Discovery awarded 5 stars
The latest Land Rover Discovery has achieved a 5 star ANCAP safety rating across all its diesel variants. The large SUV not only performed strongly in adult and child occupant protection in the event of a crash, but also earning good results for pedestrian protection. “While we expect a vehicle of this size to do well in terms of occupant safety, it’s great to see Land Rover adding safety features like Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) for vulnerable road users as standard,” says AA motoring services general manager Stella Stocks. “This helps protect pedestrians and cyclists by aiming to stop the vehicle before a crash can happen, helping to make our roads safer for everyone on them.” In addition to AEB the Discovery comes with lane departure warning, which alerts the driver when the vehicle begins to move out of its lane, and reversing collision avoidance systems. Not included in New Zealand variants is intelligent speed limiting (ISA) and speed sign recognition and warning, but they are on European models. “While the New Zealand variant of the Discovery is a good, safe car, we still urge manufacturers to give New Zealand motorists the same level of consideration when it comes to safety as our European counterparts,” says Stocks. While the Discovery did well across the crash tests there was however insufficient pressure in the driver’s airbag which saw the dummy’s head hit the steering wheel and a penalty was applied in the scoring. “Manufacturers are definitely coming on board to do their part in the safety stakes. Now we need drivers to do the same by ensuring safety is prioritised right up there with price when buying their next car,” says Stocks. The Large SUV, which went on sale in New Zealand in May and launches in Australia this week, boasts strong scores in each of the four areas of safety assessment achieving 90 per cent for Adult Occupant Protection, 80 per cent for Child Occupant Protection, 75 per cent for Pedestrian Protection and a Safety Assist score of 73 per cent. “The Discovery earned its 5 star safety rating showing strengths in structure, design and equipment,” said ANCAP Chief Executive Officer, Mr James Goodwin. “Crash test dummy readings indicated good levels of protection of all critical body regions in the side impact test as well as the more severe side pole test. Protection of the knees and femurs for both the driver and passenger in the frontal offset test was also good,” This 5 star ANCAP safety rating applies to all Australian and New Zealand variants. The previous generation Discovery was unrated.
