The new Mitsubishi Pajero Sport has scored a 5 star ANCAP rating along with the Audi Q7 and Honda HR-V.

THE MITSUBISHI PAJERO SPORT, launched in Australia this week, has been awarded a 5 star ANCAP rating after realising an overall score of 36.22 out of 37 which is the best overall result of the current crop of new release 4×4 wagons. In the key areas of Frontal Offset, Side Impact and Pole it scored 15.22/16; 16/16; and 2/2, respectively.

This sees the Pajero Sport step ahead of the Toyota Fortuner that also scored a 5 star rating with scores in key areas of: 13.45/16 (Frontal Offset); 16/16 (Side Impact); and 2/2 (Pole) for an overall score of 33.95/37. And the Ford Everest also scored a 5 star rating with 15.38/16 (Frontal Offset); 16/16 (Side Impact) and 2/2 (Pole) with an overall score of 35.98/37.

“With ever increasing numbers of people buying SUVs it’s good to see more vehicles in that category obtaining a five star result so that consumers have greater choice when it comes to buying a safer vehicle,” ANCAP Chief Executive Officer James Goodwin said.

“The Pajero Sport is a significant safety improvement over the model it replaces and provides consumers in the large 4WD segment with another five star choice,” Goodwin said.

The 5 star rating for the Audi Q7 relates to the 3.0L variant with standard seats that arrived on the market in September. “The Q7 offers an impressive list of standard features including an Autonomous Emergency Braking function which operates at both low and high speeds, and it is also fitted with adaptive cruise control and lane keeping systems,” Goodwin said.

The 5 star rating for the Honda HR-V applies to all models and scored 15.21/16 for the Frontal Offset test, and 2/2 for the Pole test and the maximum 16/16 for the Side Impact test.

“The Honda is a popular selling model in the competitive, compact SUV market so it’s encouraging to see it performing well in the structural tests but autonomous braking and lane keeping technology are only available on higher end variants,” Goodwin said in the original statement from ANCAP announcing the results.