New Mazda 3 Gets Five Stars at Euro NCAP

Mazda announced today that the new Mazda 3 has been awarded five stars by the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP). The result is even more impressive since in 2009, Euro NCAP implemented a new evaluation system.

The new evaluation system works by awarding each car a single overall vehicle safety rating combining the scores achieved in four areas of assessment: Adult Occupant Protection, Child Protection, Pedestrian Protection and Safety Assist. This way, automakers will have to pay more attention to areas that were sometimes neglected, like Pedestrian Protection, in order to achieve the best rating for their model.

Mazda 3 is not the first Mazda model to be awarded  five stars under the current rules, as Mazda 6 also received the maximum safety rating in February 2009. Both Mazda 2 and Mazda 5 models were tested under older regulations and received the maximum ranking for Adult Occupant Protection.

Euro NCAP program is in charge of European car safety and has its roots in the United Kingdom. Nowadays the program is supported by the European Commission, the governments of France, Germany, Sweden, The Netherlands and Spain.

Euro NCAP rates new cars according to their performance in different crash tests: the frontal impact test which is performed at 64 km/h (40 mph); the side impact test which is performed at 50 km/h (31 mph); the pole impact test which is performed at 29 km/h (18 mph); and the pedestrian impact test which is performed at 40 km/h (25 mph).