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ANCAP’s rating system and messaging make it hard for consumers to decipher exactly how safe a car is compared to another, according to Honda.
Honda Australia has called into question the Australasian New Car Assessment Program’s (ANCAP) sometimes confusing and complicated crash-test rating messaging, which could make it hard for buyers to compare.
While ANCAP delivers an overall score out of five for a vehicle’s safety performance across physical crash testing and advanced driver safety aids, it also updates its standards every three years in line with Euro NCAP and date-stamps each rating with an expiration of six years.
It means that a car tested and awarded a five-star score in 2022 will not be comparable to one with a maximum safety rating in 2026 as both cars will be assessed on different criteria.
ANCAP does feature the tested year prominently on its rating system, but buyers who might only come across the safety body when researching a new car – sometimes as infrequently as every 10 years – might be unaware of differing standards to achieve a five-star score.
Honda Australia President and CEO Jay Joseph told Drive the current way ANCAP displays its ratings could make it hard for consumers to understand.
“I question whether it is serving its purpose adequately if it’s not giving consumers a real measuring stick to compare models,” Joseph said.
“If there is a sensitivity to when it was tested, but the consumer cannot decipher the role that plays in the number of stars, then I’m not convinced that it is serving consumers with a fair comparison of performance.”
In the past, ANCAP’s messaging has also been inconsistent with the way it presents the data.
In mid-2022, ANCAP decided to put the then year-and-a-half old Hyundai Palisade through its paces because it was “the only top 10 selling model within the large SUV (<$70,000) segment without an independent safety rating”.
While ANCAP awarded the pre-facelift Palisade a four-star score – in part due to the lack of advanced driver safety assist systems – the update to the model revealed a month prior to test results being published and launched two months after, received a revised rating of five stars.
Other large SUVs in the same class, such as the Toyota Prado, were also tested on older, less stringent standards and were awarded five-star scores from testing as far back as 2013.
Despite the rollout of the ratings expiration date in late 2022, there is still room for confusion in ANCAP results.
Just last week, the peak automotive safety body awarded the Kia Carnival hybrid – a model that launched in 2024 – with a maximum five-star score, but assessed it on the 2021 criteria that applied when the latest-generation model first arrived, albeit with supplemental testing of the high-voltage electrical systems and two additional physical crash tests.
To the standards at the time of the Kia Carnival hybrid’s release, it would have achieved a four-star score.
Honda Australia is also not without its ANCAP complications.
Last year, ANCAP awarded the Civic two different crash safety ratings – five-stars for the hybrid version, and four-stars for the now-discontinued non-hybrid variant due to differing levels of safety specification.
The CR-V family SUV was also awarded a four-star score last year, as testing found the Euro NCAP five-star version of the same car is fitted with an optional safety system upgrade unavailable to Australian customers.
Finally, the ZR-V was also awarded a four-star score based on Euro NCAP testing, with ANCAP finding local vehicles are fitted with “a different front bumper beam” and missing the overseas version’s additional rear door protection beams.
Despite these differences, ANCAP notes there was “no observable effect on test performance” and Australia ZR-Vs have a two per cent higher child occupant protection test score than its European counterpart.
Joseph would not be drawn on whether the updated CR-V and ZR-V coming to Australia next year would address the four-star safety scores, but said Honda build a high-level of road-user protection in all its vehicles.
“Our philosophy is, make vehicles that provide safety, that we have good crash performance based on a robust structure that’s designed to sacrifice itself for the protection of the occupants in a crash,” Joseph said.
“After that, provide occupant restraint systems that provide further protection for consumers in a variety of crashes.
“We see omnidirectional safety, and then apply as much crash avoidance technology as we can to the vehicles so that the crash doesn’t happen in the first place.
“Our aim is zero fatalities, I don’t think the goals of ANCAP are any different than that.
“They want consumers to make good choices, so they should do everything they can to make those comparisons as fair and equitable as possible.”
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.
