The all-new Holden Commodore has been awarded a five-star safety rating by ANCAP based on testing by Euro NCAP.
THE ALL-NEW HOLDEN COMMODORE launches in Australia next week, stay tuned for Practical Motoring’s first local drive, or follow the link here to read Paul Horrell’s review of the Vauxhall Insignia, and arrives with a five-star rating from ANCAP. The five-star rating applies to all Commodore variants, including Liftback, Wagon and Tourer in both Australia and New Zealand.
ANCAP Chief Executive, James Goodwin, said, “Australian families and fleet buyers have long regarded the Commodore as a trusted local choice and the shift to overseas supply has further enhanced the model’s safety credentials,” he said.
“This next generation Commodore includes safety assist technologies not seen in its locally-produced predecessor, with standard-fit features such as autonomous emergency braking and active lane-keep assist.”
This year (2018) sees ANCAP come into line with stricter testing criteria set by Euro NCAP where active safety is needed to be eligible for a five-star rating.
The imported, all-new ZB Commodore realised the following scores across the four key areas of assessment: 93% Adult Occupant Protection; 85% Child Occupant Protection; 78% Pedestrian Protection; 77% Safety Assist.
It’s worth noting that the vehicle tested by Euro NCAP is a left-hand drive Insignia and with a diesel powertrain, so, while you could argue it’s representative of the Commodore, it’s not exactly the same as the vehicle we’ll get here. The ANCAP assessment is obviously based off the performance of the vehicle in Europe but it then has to take that data and transpose it for our right-hand drive market and check again with the maker that the right-hand drive vehicles are indeed mirror images, etc.
Practical Motoring asked ANCAP whether it had requested a right-hand drive Commodore for local testing and were told that, yes, it had but that Holden had declined, pointing to the test by Euro NCAP. While this is unfortunate, ANCAP is not equipped with the funding to buy a version of every single car on-sale here and crash test it and is, in many ways, held hostage by the car makers who will either offer a vehicle for testing here in Australia or not.
That’s because it’s so slow it can’t hit anything fast enough to do much damage!
Oh for heaven’s sake – another motoring website just repeating whatever ANCAP feeds them, with no journalistic investigation whatsoever – not that it’s needed here with the ridiculousness of this being so obvious.
The car tested by NCAP is LEFT HAND DRIVE, as well as on a 1.6L diesel THAT WILL NOT BE SOLD IN AUSTRALIA.
What sort of a joke is ANCAP these days, replicating NCAP results with a car that has no relevance to the Commodore that will be sold here?
And it’s reported as news.
Thanks for the comment. I asked ANCAP about this and whether it had requested an Australian car to be tested; it had but Holden declined the offer of testing something locally. – Isaac
It’s good you asked. Perhaps that should have been mentioned in the article.
However your assertion makes ANCAP even more of a joke – which rating organisation worth its salt, allows its product assessment to be so heavily influenced by the yes/no of the product owner?
There should be no ANCAP assessment awarded to the Commodore, full stop, if GMH refuses to provide one for testing. How simple and ridiculous can this get?
Thanks. Updated the article. – Isaac
Thanks Isaac – it’s really good to have that clarification in your article – good work.
I can’t help but think even with the aligning of the NCAP/ANCAP regimes, there will be unanswered questions of how much the overseas test actually mirrors that of the Aust model delivered on these shores.
It’s just tragic for the credibility of ANCAP that the average punter with no keen interest in motoring, is being treated like an idiot in this instance with the new Commodore – how on earth can GMH possibly convince anyone a 3L V6 petrol RHD Aust model mirrors a LHD 1.6 diesel, but the bigger question is how can the taxpayer funded ANCAP be allowed to explain away the mirroring rationale with such shoddiness.
Thanks Isaac again for the clarification in your article.
I’ll be attending a crash test later in February and fully intend to ask such questions of ANCAP. Cheers Isaac
Looking forward to the outcome. All the best.
IT doesn’t matter what ANCAP rating is given to this Opel, most traditional Holden buyers won’t buy it. There are many other vehicles in this class which are better. Unfortunately GM has had too many imported duds of late and I suspect this new “Opel Commodore” will not deliver anywhere near the sales as the past locally produce model
Hi Chris, No, it won’t. But I don’t think Holden expects that it will… Personally, I think the new Commodore will be a good thing, but it shouldn’t be called a Commodore. Like Ford, the name should have been retired. And, unfortunately, for the new Commodore, the Mondeo’s already in the market and is an excellent vehicle. Doesn’t get all-wheel drive, though. Isaac