I've noticed a gradual shift in the way vehicle manufacturers are marketing their products of late. There is without a doubt a greater emphasis being place upon vehicle safety and crash worthiness of vehicles. It would seem that safety may actually be selling cars, and the car companies are catching on. Car makers such as Subaru and Renault are using ANCAP and EuroNCAP in their advertisements, which also gives their products greater credibility in the marketplace.

Take this statement from Renault:

At Renault, we tend to ignore safety regulations. Not because they go too far, but because they don’t go far enough. It’s long been our philosophy to exceed our legislated safety obligations, and each year we spend over $150 million in research and testing doing just that.

Source: Renault Website

Following the release of the 2008 Used Car Safety Ratings in Australia last week, there has been some discussion about the differences between new and used safety ratings as well as the protection provided by larger vehicles. This coincided with the release of the footage below, featuring a collision between a Fiat 500 and Audi Q7.

The Fiat 500 is a five-star performer in Euro NCAP test, while the Q7 only scores four stars. Commonsense would tell you that the smaller vehicle will come off second best, and I think that is what you see in the footage. It is important to remember though that not a lot (points wise) separates a 4 and 5 star car. I'd be interested in seeing the result of a Fiat 500 run into a 2 star larger vehicle.

In somewhat related news, ANCAP and VicRoads are responsible for some attention grabbing ads to encourage people to buy 4 or 5 star cars.

It's enough to make you feel sorry for the dummy isn't it? That's all for today.

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