I'm getting the impression you don't entirely agree with me...
I'm not butt-hurt...
just calling out NCAP for their flawed methodology... so that their scores remain meaningful... in order to increase *real* rather than superficial safety standards over time.
I'm just saying that Panda got a score based on the NCAP test tthat was in force when it was tested... and now it gets a rubbish "score" because NCAP has re-tested it with a new test that the car was not capable of getting a "good" score in because the new test requirements didn't exist when it was designed and built.
Worse than that, the new tests rely on the presence of electronic aids rather than reflecting the car's passive safety which was what NCAP was originally conceived to improve. By definition, a small, cheap car built years ago when that tech' didn't even exist, is not going to have it fitted.... but the absence of said gizmo's now marks the car as "unsafe". It can't be, can it?
Worse than the worse than that, the criteria for what gizmo makes the car safe is decided by NCAP and there's an obscure correlation between what gizmo makes the "required" list and the actual road accident stats.
So, NCAP might decide that in 2019 an electronic cock-washer is mandatory because one person was injured last year whilst scratching their balls... but they ignore the 5 million seriously killed because a driver is dicking about with their iDrive instead of actually... you know.. "paying attention". Having the iDrive doesn't affect NCAP... but no cock washer means your car is the new Trabant in terms of "road safety".
I'm not buying that. NCAP needs to do better, or they won't be taken seriously... which undermines their so-earnest "road safety" message.
I'd suggest NCAP introduces a Passive safety and an Active safety score, much like they already do with the "pedestrian safety" sub-rating, rather than re-testing cars that could not have predicted what gizmo they needed to have fitted in order to pass a "safety" test years later. At the moment, the "test" is flawed and not just a little disingenuous.
Ralf S.