Euro NCAP Car Safety

Euro NCAP Car Safety Review

The objective of Euro NCAP is to provide motoring consumers with a realistic and independent assessment of the safety performance of some of the most popular cars sold in Europe. You can read below a summary of the most relevant parts of the Euro NCAP systems and procedures for testing the safety of vehicles.

History
Established in 1997 and now backed by five European Governments, the European Commission and motoring and consumer organisation's in every EU country, Euro NCAP has rapidly become a catalyst for encouraging significant safety improvements to new car design.

What is the main purpose of Euro NCAP?
Euro NCAP provides consumers with independent information about a car's safety. This compliments all the other information available to consumers wishing to buy a new car. The ratings (see below) also provide an incentive to manufacturers to continually strive to improve protection.

Euro NCAP has an important influence in improving road safety. Independent research has shown that improvements in vehicle safety have been responsible for the greatest reduction in road accident casualties over the last ten years.

Euro NCAP Safety Ratings
To date Euro NCAP's crash worthiness testing has included six classes of car. When you visit the Safety Ratings section of the Euro NCAP web site it is possible to click on the appropriate link for a detailed description of how each individual car performed and how they compare to other models in their class.

Test Procedures
Today, more than ever before, safety sells cars. For car buyers it is a key element of their purchasing decision. It's essential that motoring consumers can obtain reliable and accurate comparative information regarding the safety performance of individual car models.

By law, all new car models must pass certain safety tests before they are sold. But legislation provides a minimum statutory standard of safety for new cars, it is the aim of Euro NCAP to encourage manufacturers to exceed these minimum requirements.

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