Could Subaru be Japan’s Volvo? After all, the Japanese automaker has been proudly showing its safety credentials in its ad materials since the ‘90s. In fact, the Legacy was one of the first midsize sedans to be given a ‘Good’ rating by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in the US way back in 1998.
Since then, the company has aced its safety tests, whether it’s for impact protection or driver assists. Which is why it might not come as a surprise that the Subaru Crosstrek recently did well one of the toughest tests out there.
The Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) has some of the most demanding scoring systems in the world. They’re not shy on giving cars zero stars, and they’re more than willing to knock down ratings even for seeming robust vehicles. In other words, getting five stars from them is no easy feat.
OTHER STORIES YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED:
Suzuki PH brings its community together to celebrate 50 years of service
We’re jealous of Indonesia getting the new Honda Step WGN
With that, ANCAP gave five stars to the Crosstrek, but the score breakdown is worth looking into. For adult occupant protection, it was generally good, although ANCAP noted relatively high forces on the driver’s chest, indicating a higher risk of injury. That said, the crossover made up ground by perfect scores in the side impact test. For adult occupant protection, the Subaru Crosstrek received a total of 83%.
The crossover performed especially well in child occupant protection, grabbing a score of 91%. Whether it was front impact or side impact, the dummies registered very low injury indexes. Of course, these ratings were achieved with proper child seats. ANCAP strongly recommends putting children in child seats or booster seats.
Pedestrian protection was also rated highly, which its advanced driver assists performed adequately. ANCAP notes that there is some room for improvement for its EyeSight system, although Subaru recently gave it an upgrade in the Forester. It will be interesting to see how the updated EyeSight performs.
Despite the minor negative points, it wasn’t enough to pull the Crosstrek’s rating down and still gets the full five-star rating. Its scores are about on par with a similarly-sized Volvo model, the EX30. A strong showing from Subaru, then.
