Mustangs roar to five stars

The rear-wheel drive (RWD) and AWD Premium variants of the Ford Mustang Mach-E have scored five-star ratings under ANCAP’s protocols.

Full points were scored for protection offered to the driver in the side impact and oblique-pole tests, as well as child occupants for side impact and frontal offset.

The front structure of the Mach-E, pictured, presented a relatively high risk to occupants of an oncoming vehicle, so a 3.45-point penalty out of four was applied. 

As for collision-avoidance capability, the two variants offer “good” performance for their lane-keeping and autonomous emergency braking (AEB) ability. However, their AEB back-over and driver-fatigue systems do not default “on” at the start of each journey so points were not awarded in these areas.

Meanwhile, the petrol and hybrid variants of Honda’s HR-V have been rated as four-star after falling short in two of ANCAP’s four key areas of assessment – child-occupant protection and safety assist. 

A “weak” head-protection score was recorded for the 10-year-old child in the side-impact test, and occupancy detection for rear-seat positions and driver-fatigue monitoring are unavailable. 

“Good” scores were recorded for the HR-V’s lane-keeping and forward-travel AEB ability. Back-over functionality is not available.