The latest Ford Mustang has been criticised by Euro NCAP after only scoring a two-star overall rating in its latest round of crash safety tests.
Euro NCAP, which does extensive crash testing of all cars sold in Europe, has not given many cars an overall rating below four stars in the last few years. This makes the Mustang’s disappointing performance particularly stand out.
Why only two stars?
There are four main categories which Euro NCAP assess when rating how safe a new car is, including Adult Occupant safety, Child Occupant safety, Pedestrian safety and Safety Assist features.
A low score was given to the Mustang because of concerns over the Ford’s crash protection for both adult and children, especially the latter. The lack of safety equipment that is commonly available on other cars sold in the European market also counted against the Mustang.
Ultimately, the Mustang got scores of 72 per cent and 64 per cent for Adult and Pedestrian protection respectively. Really damagingly though, it scored just 32 per cent for Child Occupant safety and a mere 16 per cent in the Safety Assist category.
“American DNA” to blame
In its assessment of the Mustang, Euro NCAP criticised Ford, saying the results of its crash testing showcased the muscle car’s “American DNA”. This term refers to the group’s observation that the Mustang was designed mainly to perform well in less extensive US consumer tests.
Euro NCAP adds that when Ford introduce a European variant of the latest Mustang, they only applied minor updates to meet region’s pedestrian safety regulations.
It was noted that the Forward Collision Warning system was done away with for European-spec cars. It was also observed that during crash testing the driver and passenger airbags inflated insufficiently to correctly restrain the occupants in the frontal offset test.
Euro NCAP’s secretary general, Michiel van Ratingen, said: “Ford did not expect Euro NCAP to test the Mustang and chose not to fit safety technology in Europe which is available to its American consumers, and available on several other sports cars for that matter.”
Ford recently announced a facelifted 2018 version of the Mustang and the manufacturer says the updated pony car will come with Pre-Collision Assist and Lane Keep Assist as standard.
Euro NCAP will assess the safety of the updated Mustang when it is launched to European markets.
