Renault's new Espace and the Suzuki Vitara have been awarded the maximum five stars in the latest round of the Euro NCAP safety tests.
The French car firm's new Espace large MPV gained its highest marks in child occupant protection, with an 89% score.
It was also awarded 82% for adult occupant protection and 80% in the safety assist category. Its lowest mark of 70% for pedestrian protection was still described by NCAP as a "good overall performance, with only poor results on the stiff windscreen area".
Suzuki's Vitara crossover scored marginally higher in those areas, with 89% and 85% for adult and child occupant protection respectively, its lowest score being 75% for safety assist.
The report noted that "dummy readings showed good protection of the knees and femurs of the driver and passenger", while the car's autonomous emergency braking system was praised for its inter-urban performance.
Meanwhile, the Fiat 500X small MPV and Mazda 2 supermini scored highly, with each being awarded four out of five stars overall.
Both models earned high marks for adult protection, with the Mazda and Fiat getting identical scores of 64% for the safety assist category, with both models being marked down slightly for not offering an autonomous emergency braking system as standard.
Join the debate
Add your comment
Shame the Espace isn't coming
Curtain airbags don't extend far enough forward - Suzuki
androo wrote:I notice in the
Suzuki do not sell cars in the US anymore and so we may never know. I agree that Euroncap should include this important test. Interestingly, the Suzuki Kizashi was amongst the first cars to be subjected to the IIHS small overlap crash test and it was, if I remember rightly, the only car, other than Volvo, to score a maximum Good rating. For a manufacturer on the more affordable end of the spectrum, Suzuki do very well on safety spec and car strength these days.
The Suzuki certainly looks