A number of vehicles have been awarded a 5-star ANCAP rating this week, including Renault Koleos, Mercedes-Benz A-Class, Mazda 6 and Lexus ES300h.

ANCAP has handed out 5-star ratings this week to Mercedes-Benz A-Class, Mazda6, Renault Koleos 4×2 and Lexus ES300h but, as usual the press statement offered some interesting facts. While ANCAP praised all the vehicles tested for their inclusion of active safety features, there was a concern over the rear seatbelt in the Mazda6 and the potential for a child seated in the rear seat to submarine under the belt.

ANCAP said it applied a penalty to the Mazda6 but it still realised the score required to achieve five stars. Editorialising for a moment, one would suggest that this issue is of more concern than whether a vehicle is fitted with autonomous emergency brakes? Moving on.

ANCAP said, “The Mazda 6 performed well for its protection of adult and child occupants however some concerns were noted for smaller occupants seated in the rear, where the pelvis of the dummy slipped beneath the lap section of the seatbelt in the full width test – known as submarining – and a penalty was applied.”

But this issue wasn’t confined to the Mazda6 with the Lexus ES300h also suffering a similar issue with the rear seat seatbelt and child occupants submarining under the belt. But the Lexus was praised for its AEB system. “The autonomous emergency braking capability of the Lexus ES300h was its standout feature with full points scored for its ability to detect and avoid pedestrians in all test scenarios at day and night. Strong performance was also recorded for its cyclist-detection capability,” ANCAP said.

The new A-Class, said ANCAP, “… offers excellent all-round safety performance.

“It has achieved the highest Vulnerable Road User Protection rating to date with a score of 92 per cent, and has equalled the highest Child Occupant Protection rating scoring 91 per cent.”

“Side chest-protecting airbags also extend to the rear seats as a standard feature on Australasian models, where it is offered as an option to European consumers,” he said.

Five-star ANCAP safety ratings apply to all variants of the Mercedes-Benz A-Class (August 2018 onwards), Mazda 6 (June 2018 onwards) and the Lexus ES300h (September 2018 onwards).