Three Out Of Europe's Five Safest Cars Are Not European
Which are the safest cars you can buy in Europe? The results of Euro NCAP tests will rattle established Euro carmakers: Out of 5 categories, 2 were won by a Japanese car, one by a Korean car. In 2010, Euro NCAP crash tested twenty nine vehicles. 65 percent received five stars.
Here are the best-of-class cars, according to Euro NCAP:
- Executive category: BMW 5 Series
- Small Family category: Alfa Romeo Giulietta
- Supermini category: Honda CR-Z
- Small off-road 4×4 category: Kia Sportage
- Small MPV category: Toyota Verso
Even the worst ones are no deathtraps. The bottom of the list is shared by the Citroen Nemo (three stars) and the Chinese Landwind CV9 (two stars).
These results reflect the toughened 2010 Euro NCAP rules. The full list of results can be downloaded here.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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So that's what all that extra weight in the new 5 is there for.... :) For those of us who like to blame SUVs fro all the world's ills, even the lardification of non SUVs can be argued to be the result of non SUV people feeling increasingly threatened by the wallowing behemoths surrounding them. Which again goes to show, that the sensible way to rate cars for crash worthiness, is to rate them on how safe they keep the passengers of the other vehicle, or pedestrians.
I will stick with real-life crashes-derived data, thank you very much. http://www.folksam.se/polopoly_fs/1.11226!/webbversioneng_R6546.pdf
What have they done to that beautiful Giulietta? How COULD they?? BTW, has anyone seen Uma Thurman?