Stars Shine On Fiat 500X For Safety In Latest Latin NCAP Crash Tests

The sixth round of results of the year of the New Car Assessment Programme for Latin America and the Caribbean, Latin NCAP, was released today with a top result and an Advanced Award for Fiat 500X while New Cruze renews a solid four stars result.

The Chevrolet Cruze, produced in Argentina, achieved four stars for Adult Occupant Protection and four stars for Child Occupant Protection. The New Cruze with standard front and side body airbags offers good protection in front and side impact for the adult while its standard Electronic Stability Control (ESC) performs according to requirements. Standard side head protection airbags and a pole impact test with positive result could increase the star rating level for adults. The Child Occupant Protection in front impact was limited to good and in side impact was good. The improvable ISOFIX markings could help the New Cruze to achieve better star ratings for Child Occupant Protection.

The FIAT 500X, produced in Italy for all Latin America region, achieved five stars for Adult Occupant Protection and five stars for Child Occupant Protection. Moreover the model receives a Latin NCAP Advanced Award for Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB). The Fiat 500X showed good protection for adult in frontal, side and side pole impact crash scenarios. The child occupants also received good protection in front and side impact. The 500X´s ESC performed according to requirements and the AEB system, which is optional, also met basic requirements to secure the Advanced Award for the 500X and reaching the first ever five stars result for FIAT in Latin NCAP.

Alejandro Furas, Secretary General of Latin NCAP said:

“It is inspiring to find car manufacturers aiming to top star ratings for Latin American market as well as it is encouraging to find their commitment to bring new models to higher star rating levels. FIAT showed that they can offer the same standard safety levels for their models in Europe and Latin America in the case of the 500X. We hope that this commitment can inspire Chevrolet to follow the same steps with the Cruze as sister model is offered with 6 airbags in Europe and for Latin America they offer it with 4 as standard.

Independent information to consumers has become a very powerful and efficient tool that is already pushing Latin American market to safer cars. Governments should offer incentives, encourage and promote mandatory rating for all cars sold in their markets. Governments should encourage and create incentives to cars with active safety technologies like ESC and AEB systems in order to shift the safety levels of new cars sold in the region and to line up with global requirements”.

Ricardo Morales, Latin NCAP Chairman of the Board of Directors said:

“The most relevant and encouraging of this publication of results is that we see manufacturers willing to show consumers how well they can perform in Latin NCAP tests. We encourage other manufacturers to follow this path and to offer the same safety levels and equipment they offer in mature economies markets also in Latin America in the Caribbean. It is really sad that consumers from our region need to pay extra for basic safety in mature markets”.

Fiat 500X
Read the full crash test report
Watch the crash test video
Watch ESC test video
Watch AEB test video
Download crash test image

Chevrolet Cruze
Read the full crash test report
Watch the crash test video
Watch ESC test Video
Download crash test image

About Latin NCAP

The New Car Assessment Programme for Latin America and the Caribbean, Latin NCAP, was launched in 2010 to develop a regional system of independent crashworthiness and safety rating across Latin America and Caribbean (LAC). Latin NCAP replicates similar consumer testing programmes developed over the last thirty years in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia, and which have proved to be very effective in improving the safety of motor vehicles. Since 2010 Latin NCAP has published the results of more than one hundred cars in nine test phases.

Latin NCAP acknowledges the support received by the Global New Car Assessment Programme (Global NCAP), International Consumer Research and Testing (ICRT), FIA Foundation, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and Bloomberg Philanthropies Global Road Safety Initiative.

Latin NCAP is an Associate member of Global NCAP and supports the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020 and the Stop the Crash Partnership.

More info: www.latinncap.com