Five-star safety is pushing up car prices, but ANCAP reckons buyers still expect top marks

Independent safety body ANCAP says Australian customers still expect new vehicles to aim for top marks in crash testing, amid criticism of the organisation from car brands selling cars that have fallen short of five stars.

Leading car brands have raised concerns with messaging from ANCAP, claiming the organisation promotes a sentiment that ratings less than five stars are not acceptable.

These brands – such as Mitsubishi and Hyundai – say ANCAP is inherently pushing up prices of new cars, as manufacturers need to develop stronger bodies and add more crash-avoidance technology in the quest to achieve five stars.

CEO of ANCAP (Australasian New Car Assessment Program), Carla Hoorweg, told Drive the organisation encourages five-star scores because it is what Australians want.

“What we’re talking about really is ‘what do consumers want to buy?’ And consumers want, and expect, five-star cars still,” Hoorweg said.

“I think Australian consumers have very high expectations.

“I think that’s the part that gets missed in that kind of angle; is we’re reflecting what consumers want.”

One of the most vocal opponents of ANCAP’s supposed narrative, somewhat unsurprisingly given the zero-star safety score handed to its Express van before it was withdrawn from the market, has been Mitsubishi Australia.

Local boss Shaun Westcott has questioned the need to chase five-star scores at the cost of prices consumers can afford, telling Australian media in mid-2023: “Is three-star [safety] okay? I come from countries where three stars is okay.”

“Europe and Euro NCAP, they go ‘three stars is okay’. New Zealand talks that way as well, three stars is okay.

“Australia’s ANCAP is still talking five stars or nothing. I’m going, really? Are we sure about that?”

The comments from Westcott came after the Mitsubishi Express van's zero-star score, despite sharing all but its badge with the three-star Euro NCAP Renault Trafic, due to the former being tested to the protocols at the time of introduction in 2021.

As well, the Hyundai Palisade earned a four-star score in 2022, about a year and a half after it arrived in local showrooms – and once thousands of vehicles had been delivered to customers – with ANCAP at the time stating that “all other models within the segment hold a five-star ANCAP safety rating”.

However, most rivals were tested to older, less stringent standards – the top-selling model at the time was the Toyota Prado that was tested in 2011 – and the Palisade appeared in 2018.

Going some way to address such criticisms, ANCAP rolled out date stamps for its ratings in 2014, as well as a six-year expiration date from 2023.

However, while many new cars achieve the maximum score, changing protocols between years – and test data ANCAP derives from Euro NCAP – two five-star cars introduced a year apart may not offer the same level of crash protection.

Critics of ANCAP have also claimed the organisation targets certain makes and models at will for headlines, such as the sixth-generation Ford Mustang that notched a two-star score due to poor rear-seat protection in a collision and the dearth of advanced driver assistance systems.

Yet critics point out that other top-selling cars – such as the previous-generation MG 3, which was Australia's top-selling city car for four years running – have not been placed under ANCAP's microscope.

The result of all this is that car makers are adding more advanced safety systems to all models to avoid being seen as an ‘unsafe’ brand, which in turn can drive up prices for buyers.

For example, the most affordable Toyota and Mazda – the Yaris and Mazda 2 – have moved from circa-$16,000 prices to over $25,000 in the past decade, as additional crash-avoidance technology such as autonomous emergency braking (AEB) and blind-spot monitoring is fitted.

Toyota Australia says buyers looking for a car at the old Yaris hatch's price should instead consider its certified used-car catalogue – though whether cars as old as 10 years are comparable in crash-safety with an affordable sub-five-star new car is unclear.

"With consumers, we still see vehicles that don’t do well [in crash testing], sell. It’s not like they don’t sell anything," Hoorweg told Drive.

"Part of what ANCAP’s there to do is to educate consumers on what they should be looking for and try and promote the safest vehicle possible, but at the same time we’re here to provide customer information.

"Consumers can choose to purchase any vehicle they want, so if a manufacturer doesn’t bring a vehicle into the market because they think they’re not going to sell enough, that’s purely a commercial decision for them.

"And if they bring that into an environment where there’s a very high safety expectation, well they need to consider that as well."

Tung Nguyen has been in the automotive journalism industry for over a decade, cutting his teeth at various publications before finding himself at Drive in 2024. With experience in news, feature, review, and advice writing, as well as video presentation skills, Tung is a do-it-all content creator. Tung’s love of cars first started as a child watching Transformers on Saturday mornings, as well as countless hours on PlayStation’s Gran Turismo, meaning his dream car is a Nissan GT-R, with a Liberty Walk widebody kit, of course.

Read more about Tung Nguyen