On sale here from this month, the all-new Suzuki Swift has been rated as one of Europe’s safest cars, achieving a maximum five-star rating in the 2010 test by Euro NCAP (New Car Assessment Programme ).
Euro NCAP’s rating scheme focuses on the vehicle’s overall safety performance which gives consumers an easy to understand single score. The system considers occupant protection in frontal, side, pole and rear impacts as well as child protection, pedestrian protection, and the availability of driver aids.
The rating scheme uses a weighted score, combining many aspects of a car’s safety performance: adult (50 per cent ), child (20 per cent ), and pedestrian (20 per cent ) protection assessment results with the availability of safety assistance devices (10 per cent ).
The new Swift attained a score of 94 per cent for adult occupant protection, 82 per cent for child, 62 per cent for pedestrian and 71 per cent for the provision of safety assistance devices with an overall total of 83 per cent. This total exceeded the score of 75 per cent required to achieve the five-star rating set by Euro NCAP.
Helping Suzuki gain this high total safety performance score across all four criteria, new Swift has been developed with a new, stronger, and lighter impact absorbing bodyshell designed to improve occupant protection as well as minimising injuries to pedestrians.
Also, to ensure optimum occupant protection, new Swift includes seven airbags as standard across the range which includes driver’s knee airbag as well as whiplash mitigating front seats. Active safety equipment includes ESP (Electronic Stability Programme ) which is also fitted as standard equipment across the new Swift range.
