Honda Accord ‘shining star’

Honda’s Accord and City, the Nissan X-Trail, Peugeot 308 and Toyota Prius C have all received five-star safety ratings. ANCAP describes the rating for the X-Trail as “bittersweet” with “another high-selling Nissan de-specified for the Australasian market.  While available on European-sold models, autonomous emergency braking (AEB) is again an omission from all X-Trail variants in this part of the world – as was the case with the Qashqai earlier this year. “The shining star in today’s release is the Honda Accord," said ANCAP chairman Lauchlan McIntosh. “As a result of our independent testing, we have seen Honda improve the design of the Accord to raise its safety rating from four to five stars.” The current Accord when first tested by ANCAP in July 2013 revealed an elevated risk of injury to the lower legs of the driver in the frontal offset test. Design changes have improved its performance with a second round of testing revealing a lower risk. Its frontal-offset test score rose from 11.21 points for models built June 2013 to July 2014 to 14.79 points for those from August 2014 onward. “While not required to improve its performance, Honda has reviewed the ANCAP test results and actively implemented changes to offer consumers a safer car,” adds McIntosh. “Not only does the Accord now offer a long list of safety assist technologies, including AEB on select models, it also offers improved occupant protection through a sound structure.” For the small car segment, all variants of the hybrid Toyota Prius C and Honda City have five stars, while that ANCAP rating for the Peugeot 308 applies only to diesel variants – petrol models are unrated.