Comparing apples with apples

ANCAP will introduce a datestamp to all its new vehicle safety-rating logos so that ratings from different years can be more accurately compared.

Vehicle safety advocate the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) is adding a datestamp to safety-rating logos and will require all industry participants to use the new logos from January 2015.

ANCAP conducts independent crash tests of vehicles and rates each one with a star rating of 1 to 5. These ratings are then used in manufacturer and dealership marketing and as guidelines for reviewers, transport agencies, fleets and employers.

Because the requirements for each star rating are increasing every year as vehicle safety technologies improve, the organisation has decided to add the year the vehicle was tested to make the ratings easier to compare.

“Consumers are now well aware of ANCAP and its 1- to 5-star safety rating system and are interested to know how a 5-star rating of earlier years compares with a 5-star rating of today,” ANCAP Chairman Lauchlan McIntosh commented.

“The introduction of datestamping to ANCAP ratings is the next step in clearly communicating the differences in a car rated today compared with a car rated in forthcoming years.”

The ANCAP’s new guidelines stipulate that rating logos with the new datestamp be used for all vehicles rated after July 2014. Use of the new logos will then take full effect as of the start of next year.

ANCAP said it will start distributing the datestamped logos to manufacturers and other member organisations during the second half of the year.