Five star safety for Corolla, 5008 and WRX

ANCAP has announced that the new Toyota Corolla sedan, Peugeot 5008 people mover and the soon-to-be launched Subaru WRX performance sedan have all earned its top five star safety rating.

The recently-launched 2014 Corolla sedan matches the five star rating of its hatch counterpart, earned after its arrival in October 2012.

Whilst qualifying for five stars, the Corolla sedan’s 34.88/37 overall score didn’t quite match the hatch’s 35.25, but ANCAP praised its good structural protection and range-wide standard reversing camera.

The seven-seat Peugeot 5008’s rating comes 10 months after its arrival on the Australian market, and its performance across all tests earned it a 36.41 overall score.

ANCAP noted the 5008’s standard reversing camera, advanced seatbelt reminders for all occupants, and head-protecting curtain airbags that cover all three rows of seating.    

The upcoming Subaru WRX matched the five star rating of its Impreza basis, but the performance model’s 35.85 overall score trumped the Impreza’s 35.33 earned shortly before its arrival in February 2012.

ANCAP described the WRX’s driver protection in the side impact crash test and head protection in the side pole test as good, while driver and passenger chest and leg protection in the frontal offset crash test were deemed acceptable.

The independent vehicle safety advocate also praised the WRX’s attention to pedestrian protection, being one of the few current models to achieve the top ‘Good’ ranking, where only ‘Acceptable’ is required to achieve five stars overall.

"In recent years we've seen manufacturers achieve vastly improved results with the majority of major brands now building to 5 star standards. What we want to see now is manufacturers which strive beyond the requirements - offering even higher levels of structural and active safety to consumers," ANCAP Chairman, Lauchlan McIntosh says.

“Unfortunately none of the models in today's release are equipped with autonomous emergency braking [AEB] - an important safety feature that is now common on popular vehicles in Europe and the USA.”

This reporter is on Twitter: @Mal_Flynn