Despite a delayed launch in Australia due to a brake issue, ANCAP has given the 2015 Suzuki Celerio a 4 star rating, while the Sonata scored 5 stars.

THE LOCAL RELEASE of the 2015 Suzuki Celerio goes from bad to worse for Suzuki with the announcement of a four-star rating by ANCAP (although it only achieved a three-star rating in EuroNCAP). Recalled in the UK (the recall affects right-hand drive cars in UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand) days after going on-sale due to a potentially fatal brake failure with owners told to stop driving their cars until further notice.

Locally, Suzuki has been quiet on the issue, stating only that customer sales haven’t started yet and that more information would be forthcoming.

Putting the brake issue to one side, ANCAP said it was heartened by Suzuki’s decision to add safety gear missing from the European variant, including side curtain airbags and seat belt reminders for both front and second row occupants.

“ANCAP is pleased to see that Suzuki Australia have made the decision to provide Australian and New Zealand consumers with a car which has these additional safety features,” said ANCAP Chairman, Lauchlan McIntosh.

“Side curtain airbags are a vital safety feature – particularly effective in reducing the chance of serious head injury in side impacts.”

“ANCAP has put pressure on manufacturers to include head-protecting side airbags for many years, introducing this as a mandatory 5 star requirement in 2004. We are happy to see Suzuki’s positive response to this pressure even though the Celerio’s list of other safety features does not meet ANCAP’s requirements for 5 stars,” McIntosh added.

Because the Celerio did not have the requisite number of safety assist technologies for 5 stars, it was ineligible for a pole test. Good performance in the pole test is required for a 5 star rating.

Overall, the 2015 Suzuki Celerio returned a score of 32.49 out of 37.

The 2015 Hyundai Sonata, launched this week, has scored a 5 star rating with an overall score of 33.84 out of 37. Where it slipped was in its frontal offset rating, scoring 12.84 out of 16; it rated 16 out of 16 for side impact and scored 2 out of 2 for the pole test. By comparison, the similarly-sized 2015 Subaru Liberty scored 14.99 out of 16 for its frontal offset test.

“The new Sonata brings excellent all-round safety to our market having cleared the higher hurdles demanded by our 2015 assessment requirements,” said McIntosh. That said, ANCAP was disappointed autonomous emergency braking (AEB) which is standard on Hyundai’s recently launched Genesis wasn’t included as standard on the new Sonata.

Back to the Celerio. Was anyone considering buying one? If so, have you changed your mind?