Ford siblings top for safety
The new Ford Ranger and its partner model, the Everest, have secured five-star Ancap ratings.
“This is good news for fleets, families and tradies, as well as recreational consumers – everyone who uses these models for work and play,” says Carla Hoorweg, Ancap’s chief executive officer.
“A five-star safety rating isn’t an easy achievement, yet it’s particularly important when considering the broad range of uses for the Ranger and Everest.”
The Ranger comes equipped as standard with dual frontal, side chest-protecting and side head-protecting curtain airbags, as well as a driver and passenger knee airbag. A centre airbag, which provides added protection to front-seat occupants in side-impact crashes is also a standard offering.
Solid scores were achieved for the Everest, pictured, and Ranger’s protection of adult occupants in the frontal offset, side-impact and far-side impact tests, although marginal scores were recorded for the chest of the rear passenger in the full-width frontal crash test and for the chest of the driver in the oblique pole test.
High and heavy vehicles, such as utilities and large SUVs, pose an increased risk to occupants of oncoming vehicles in a crash, and this was shown with the Ranger and Ford Everest where a “compatibility” penalty was applied.
Maximum scores were awarded recognising the good levels of protection offered to child occupants in the frontal offset and side-impact crashes.
Consumers must note, however, that most child restraints are legally only able to be used in seating positions where a top-tether anchorage point is fitted.
In the case of the Ranger, a top-tether anchorage is not fitted in the centre seating position of the second row in double-cab variants. The installation of child restraints in single and extended cab variants of the Ranger is also not recommended as there are no top-tether anchorages fitted, says Ancap.
The Ranger and Everest both offer a broad range of active collision-avoidance systems to help prevent or minimise the severity of a crash, including the ability to detect unmarked road edges and oncoming vehicles in “turning-across-path” intersection scenarios. Performance tests of autonomous emergency braking, lane-keep assistance and speed assistance all scored well.
The five-star Ancap safety rating applies to all Everest variants, and all XL, XLS, XLT, Sport and Wildtrak variants of the Ranger in single cab, extended cab and double-cab body styles, including utility and cab-chassis). Raptor variants of the Ford Ranger are unrated.
