Fabia only 4 star rating in EuroNCAP!!!

[bobski]

I was going to disagree and say that 4 stars compared to 5 doesn't really matter to most buyers, but then realised that the safety perception is pretty important for small cars. This segment will have a good many buyers downsizing or buying for their kids. In both of those situations, people will take note of the star ratings. Not to mention that salespeople will definitely say "oh, you are considering a Fabia. Did you know its only 4 stars. Yes, this car drives like a pile of crap and is a snoozefest, but it has 5 stars! That is a whole extra star!".

So, yeah, crash some Skoda! (if they can get stock )

[aware]

The thing is, the Roomster got a 5-star NCAP rating and it has the standard 6 airbags (which the Fabia gets here) and it's also practically the same car in terms of airbag positioning (apart from the curtains) so I'm pretty sure the Fabia would be a 5-star car.

Doesn't matter to the average punter - they wouldn't undertake that kind of research. Even if we think it is a 5 star car, people will see that it's got 4 and walk away.

Look at the ANCAP website - only 2 of the 4 Skoda's tested have a 5 star safety rating - if people look at that alone and don't read anything else, it's not a good start. After reading the report, the Fabia really needs to be tested again when released here - particularly as they mention that the Australian specs may differ from what they tested previously.

[Corey_R]

Has anyone actually decided to look at the Euro NCAP Page for the 2007 Fabia crash test?

It clearly states that the car was equipped with the Front seatbelt pretensioners, Front seatbelt load limiters, Driver frontal airbag, Front passenger frontal airbag, Side body airbags, Side head airbags. The only airbag it doesn't have is the Driver knee airbag.

There is also this comment:

Front impact
The passenger compartment remained stable during the impact but structures in the dashboard presented a risk of injury to the knees and femurs of the driver and passenger.

You can also see the break-down of the scoring.
This is definitely a 4 star car on the pre-2009 tests, and that's WITH the 6 air bags.
It's quite possible that on the current tests, or soon to be released 2012 crash test scheme, that the Fabia is a 3 star car.


As for ANCAP, I generally don't care about their testing unless it's for a car that Euro NCAP haven't tested. For one, much of their database is from the old EuroNCAP tests anyway, but two, their test requirements and methodologies lag behind Europe, and even the American NTHSA.

[woofy]

I haven't looked at the Fabia one, but when I was researching before buying the RS OCty, the test for it was missing some airbags they then later came with. I don't think they have done any new tests actually but the existing one was the series I version that we never even had here (pre 06). You would think its about due for a new one, but maybe they are doing that with the all new model.

[Jake02]

Doesn't matter to the average punter - they wouldn't undertake that kind of research. Even if we think it is a 5 star car, people will see that it's got 4 and walk away.

Look at the ANCAP website - only 2 of the 4 Skoda's tested have a 5 star safety rating - if people look at that alone and don't read anything else, it's not a good start. After reading the report, the Fabia really needs to be tested again when released here - particularly as they mention that the Australian specs may differ from what they tested previously.

My point wasn't that linters will see the difference between Fabia and Roomster, it was that the Roomster got 5 stars and that if they tested the Fabia with the same airbags it would get 5 stars too.

[Corey_R]

My point wasn't that linters will see the difference between Fabia and Roomster, it was that the Roomster got 5 stars and that if they tested the Fabia with the same airbags it would get 5 stars too.

Except that you're simply incorrect.
Both the Fabia 2007 EuroNCAP Test and Skoda 2006 EuroNCAP Test were conducted with the same airbags. The Fabia is just a 4 star car, and Roomster a 5 star.

Rather than spending multiple pages trying to argue a point based around speculation, why not just read the tests and understand why first?

[VAG newbie]

Has anyone actually decided to look at the Euro NCAP Page for the 2007 Fabia crash test?

It clearly states that the car was equipped with the Front seatbelt pretensioners, Front seatbelt load limiters, Driver frontal airbag, Front passenger frontal airbag, Side body airbags, Side head airbags. The only airbag it doesn't have is the Driver knee airbag.

There is also this comment:


You can also see the break-down of the scoring.
This is definitely a 4 star car on the pre-2009 tests, and that's WITH the 6 air bags.
It's quite possible that on the current tests, or soon to be released 2012 crash test scheme, that the Fabia is a 3 star car.


As for ANCAP, I generally don't care about their testing unless it's for a car that Euro NCAP haven't tested. For one, much of their database is from the old EuroNCAP tests anyway, but two, their test requirements and methodologies lag behind Europe, and even the American NTHSA.

That's bad!! I was in the hope that Aussie spec with 6 airbags will be 5 stars. If that's the case, with a RRP of $18990, Fabia will be a flop and may terminate the presence o Skoda here!

Even Jazz and Mazda 2 scored 5 stars in EuroNCAP. I think I'll persuade my parents to go for a Polo then, only $500 more, you get more equipment, more safety and a proper VW, ie, better resale. Very disappointed....

[Jake02]

Except that you're simply incorrect.
Both the Fabia 2007 EuroNCAP Test and Skoda 2006 EuroNCAP Test were conducted with the same airbags. The Fabia is just a 4 star car, and Roomster a 5 star.

Rather than spending multiple pages trying to argue a point based around speculation, why not just read the tests and understand why first?

My bad, I assumed they tested the basic model like they did the Octavia. No need to be a total d**k in return however. You've made your point, no need to take it too far.

[Corey_R]

I think that things like air-bags give people an overly simplistic view of car safety.
The issue with the Fabia really has nothing to do with airbags. The issue is that something (structural? chassis? engine being pushed back?) causes the dash and dash components to come down onto the driver and front passenger.


But don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the Fabia's issues can't be fixed, just that it's got nothing to do with the number of airbags used in the test.


I am not really read up on the Skoda range. I thought that the Fabia was based on the Polo, so when I heard the Fabia was coming to Australia, I thought it was a new car based on the new 6R Polo platform. Obviously that's not the case, but I don't know how much of my thoughts are wrong and correct etc.
But since the solution has nothing to do with airbags, but more with structure/chassis/engine etc, it's quite possible that the issue could be resolved within a "Facelift" change if one of those is about or has recently occured. We're not engineers, so for all we know, the problem is with the engine mount design not correctly pushing the engine down under the car when a frontal impact occurs. If that was hypothetically the case in the 2007 crash test, the engine would hit the firewall, which would push the dash etc. So if Skoda fix that (or whatever is really the cause) during a facelift refresh, they can submit the car to be tested under the current EuroNCAP standards. Though, one would think that if they had resolved the issue, they would have done that already (or maybe they have and it's currently in progress? who knows).


Btw, even though ANCAP is now using outdated crash test methodologies, they will still take results from the EuroNCAP tests. It's just that when they "add up the points" to determine the "star rating", they base the points on the current ANCAP methodology. Therefore, a car can be tested once in Europe, and receive a 4 star rating on the EuroNCAP test, but be scored as a 5 star car in the ANCAP results. There are various examples of this already on the ANCAP site, notably within the VAG family is the VW Amarok - 4 star EuroNCAP, 5 star ANCAP, both results from the same test crash

[pologti18t]

I If that was hypothetically the case in the 2007 crash test, the engine would hit the firewall, which would push the dash etc. So if Skoda fix that (or whatever is really the cause) during a facelift refresh, they can submit the car to be tested under the current EuroNCAP standards. Though, one would think that if they had resolved the issue, they would have done that already (or maybe they have and it's currently in progress? who knows).

There has been a facelift since the 2007 test... so who knows what it would score now.
Remember the 2 1/2 star Barina? .... after some tweaks (by Australian engineers) during a facelift it became a 4 star car.

And as the report stated the car lost points for insufficient or confusing labelling of passenger airbag disable and rear isofix.
The actual crash score isn't too bad... especially the side pole test