Updated Ford Mustang scores three stars

FORD’S facelifted Mustang pony car has increased its crash safety rating from two to three stars, but Australia’s safety watchdog has criticised the company for not doing more to improve occupant protection.

 

The Mustang infamously received a lowly two-star rating from the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) in January last year.

 

It lost points in the safety assist category due to a lack of safety systems such as a speed limiter, autonomous emergency braking (AEB), rear seatbelt reminders and lane-keep assist technology.

 

ANCAP said at the time that the Mustang had inadequate child occupant protection, scoring just 15.81 out of a possible 49 points in the category, with a risk of “serious head, chest and leg injury”.

 

The updated 2018 Mustang that goes on sale in Australia this week gains safety assist features including AEB, forward collision warning, lane departure warning and lane keep assist.

 

This has helped lift the Safety Assist score from 16 to 61 per cent, while the pedestrian protection score has risen from 64 to 78 per cent.

 

While the refreshed Mustang scored 72 per cent for adult occupant protection, it achieved only 32 per cent in the child occupant protection category, prompting ANCAP chief executive James Goodwin to criticise the Blue Oval for not addressing the issue.

 

“Improvements have been made to the Mustang’s safety assist features as well as tuning to restraint systems,” he said.

 

“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.”

 

The three-star rating covers all Fastback (coupe) versions of the Mustang, including V8 and four-cylinder EcoBoost, built from December 2017 on, but convertible variants remain unrated.

 

As reported by GoAuto in May this year, ANCAP confirmed that it would not re-test the Mustang and would instead just revise the score to three stars in light of the updates.

 

At the time, Ford Australia communications manager Martin Gunsberg highlighted the fact that other offerings in the segment were not tested.

 

“The majority of coupes sold in Australia are low-volume vehicles and as such, remain untested or have gone through less rigorous protocols than what the Mustang was tested under at the time,” he said.

 

“It is important to know that (the pre-facelift Mustang) score is still a high score for the frontal-offset test and is higher than the frontal offset score achieved by many other vehicles which have a five-star Euro NCAP rating.”

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