Cars these days are safer than before. It almost seems as if everything gets a five star rating from various organizations. So when there’s news of a car that gets less than that, it does raise a few eyebrows.
Case in point, the all-new Suzuki Swift. The subcompact hatchback scored just three stars in recent testing done by the European New Car Assessment Program. So, what gives?
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Breaking down the report of EuroNCAP, the agency noted marginal protection for the chest and thighs for the front passenger in a frontal offset impact. For the driver’s side, chest protection was rated weak, and there was also a higher risk of injury for the legs. The results were the same in the full-width barrier test that simulates a vehicle colliding with a wall head on. Head protection, on the other hand, was rated good.
EuroNCAP did note that “the passenger compartment of the Swift remained stable in the frontal offset test,” meaning the shell of the car remains intact with the crumple zone bearing the brunt of the hit.
For side impact testing, it was a bit of a mixed bag. From the front, the Swift provided adequate to good protection. In fact, the Swift gained a near-perfect rating in the tougher side pole crash test. The structure was sound and didn’t allow too much intrusion. Great news, but the agency had concerns about how far the torso moves around when the vehicle is hit from the opposite side.
For child occupant protection, here is EuroNCAP’s overall assessment below.
“In the frontal offset test, protection of the neck of the 10 year dummy was rated as poor, based on dummy readings of tensile forces. Chest protection was marginal and head protection was adequate. For the 6 year dummy, tensile forces indicated weak neck protection, while head decelerations resulted in a marginal rating for that body area. In the side barrier test, chest accelerations showed poor chest protection for the 10 year dummy, and neck protection was rated as weak.”
But where the Swift took a beating is in its advanced driver assist systems. It’s not that these were ineffective, but rather, there isn’t enough features that are included in them.
In its statement, EuroNCAP said, “Suzuki has long been a manufacturer of small, simple, and affordable cars. It then becomes no surprise that the [Dacia] Duster and the Swift emerge from Euro NCAP’s tests with no more than three stars. However, legislation now insists that all cars must be equipped with autonomous emergency braking, emergency lane-keeping systems, intelligent speed limiters, and driver fatigue detection. The Duster and the Swift fulfill this obligation but do little more, despite having the technologies fitted.”
It all sounds rather harsh, but does that mean the Swift is, as a whole, unsafe? Well, no. The fact that it still has three stars means it’s safe…enough. But that’s at least for European standards. Over there, the Swift is expected to perform just as well as cars costing twice, or even thrice as much. It's a big ask, given that EuroNCAP made the scoring system even tougher.
Ratings will vary depending on the market as each have their respective testing parameters. For instance, the Japanese New Car Assessment Program (JNCAP) gave the Swift four stars, while the Australasian New Car Assessment Program said that it will test the Swift according to local specification before it gives its own rating.
