Popular Suzuki Swift gets one-star
The latest Suzuki Swift to hit the Australian market has received a one-star safety rating from the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP).
While the fourth-generation Suzuki Swift achieved a three-star rating in Europe, ANCAP says the model sold in Australia and New Zealand performed differently during tests.
ANCAP Chief Executive Officer Carla Hoorweg says ANCAP was informed of differences between locally supplied Swift models and those sold in Europe.
“ANCAP was informed of physical differences between locally supplied Swift models and those supplied in Europe so we conducted a range of additional crash tests on local vehicles and found some areas of concern.”
The test results
The Swift’s physical crash performance resulted in it receiving a one-star rating. It also scored 47 per cent for adult occupant protection and 59 per cent for child occupant protection. The Suzuki’s collision avoidance performance was also found to be limited with a score of 54 per cent.
According to ANCAP, the child occupant protection result was one of the lowest scores a vehicle has received.
The Swift recorded poor scores for the head and chest of the child dummies in head-on and side-impact crash test scenarios.
“The design of some of the structural elements and restraints in locally sold Swift vehicles appear to lack robustness leading to variation in crash performance.”
– Carla Hoorweg
Performance variations in the frontal offset and full-width crash tests resulted in higher chest loads and leg injury risks to the driver.
In the full-width test there was also significantly greater rear passenger chest compression, which exceeded the allowable limit. For this reason, it was assessed as poor in that category and the overall score was capped.
ANCAP has four main criteria it assesses: adult occupant protection, child occupant protection, vulnerable road-user protection and safety assist.
The scoring system is designed so a vehicle needs to score well in all four areas to get an exceptional overall score. This means if it scores poorly in one area, the overall score is capped.
European versus Australian models
The Suzuki Swift is the latest model to enter the Australasian market with different safety credentials to its European counterpart.
It follows safety-related differences recently uncovered through ANCAP assessments of the Honda Civic, CR-V and ZR-V.
ANCAP and Euro New Car Assessment Programme (the European equivalent of ANCAP), test and rating criteria were aligned in 2018 to promote consistency across markets.
However, ANCAP continues to scrutinise locally available models to identify specification differences.
“This one-star result serves as an important reminder for prospective buyers to check the ANCAP safety rating of the vehicle they’re looking to buy,” Carla says.
Want to know about how ANCAP works? Go behind the scenes at an ANCAP safety test.