Following its 2-Star rating by ANCAP in 2017, the refreshed 2018 Ford Mustang was resubmitted with ANCAP today announcing a 3-star rating for the Pony car.
STRUCTURALLY the refreshed Ford Mustang remains unchanged but Ford has added in active safety features that weren’t on the vehicle before. This gave ANCAP the opportunity to reassess the vehicle which is being launched to motoring media this week – stay tuned for our review. The refreshed Mustang was launched in other markets 12 months ago.
This addition of autonomous emergency braking, forward collision warning and lane support system which incorporates lane departure warning and lane keep assist has seen the Safety Assist component of the rating rise to 61% from 16% in 2017. The Pedestrian Protection score rose from 64 to 78% and this was enough to see ANCAP award the Mustang an additional star lifting its rating to 3 stars.
Following the publication of a 2 star ANCAP safety rating for the Ford Mustang in January 2017, Ford has revised the specification of its Mustang for the right-hand-drive Australian and New Zealand markets, resulting in an upgrade to 3 stars.
But ANCAP was adamant that Ford hadn’t done enough to improve the Mustang’s original poor performance in crash testing.
“Improvements have been made to the Mustang’s Safety Assist features as well as tuning to restraint systems,” said ANCAP Chief Executive, James Goodwin.
“Structurally however, the revised Ford Mustang is identical to the Mustang we originally rated, meaning it still falls short of our expectations in the areas of Adult Occupant and Child Occupant Protection.”
“The inclusion of driver assistance aids such as AEB and lane keep assist is a definite step in the right direction, yet these upgrades have neglected to address the injury risk posed to rear seat occupants as well as whiplash protection,” Goodwin said.
The 3 star ANCAP safety rating applies to Fastback (V8 and EcoBoost coupe) variants built from December 2017. Fastback variants sold from December 2015 through to those built in December 2017 hold a 2 star ANCAP safety rating. Other variants are unrated.
