Video: Holden Acadia, BMW X5 score ANCAP five stars

The latest round of ANCAP safety testing has seen Holden’s new Acadia and the all-new BMW X5 score a maximum of five stars each.

The large SUV class is full of five-star safety contenders like the Mazda CX-9, Toyota Kluger and Prado and the Kia Sorento, as well as more premium offerings like the Mercedes-Benz GLE and Audi Q7.

The US-built Acadia was crash-tested at ANCAP headquarters in Sydney, and performed very well across all disciplines, scoring 94 per cent for adult occupant protection, 87 per cent in child occupant protection and 86 per cent for safety assist equipment levels.

7

“These are impressive results, and it is encouraging to see Holden offer such a strong safety performer in this competitive family SUV segment,” said ANCAP chief executive James Goodwin in a statement.

“Full points were scored in testing of its lane support systems, autonomously maintaining lane position within line markings as well as the un-marked road edge. The Acadia also intervened in overtaking scenarios, passing the more critical emergency lane keeping tests.”

“I am really pleased to see the Acadia achieve a five-star safety rating, and that Acadia scored so well under ANCAP’s new and tougher Euro NCAP aligned protocols,” said Holden’s chairman and managing director Dave Buttner.

All Holden Acadia SUVs are fitted with a brace of safety kit that includes seven airbags (including three-row curtain airbags), traffic sign recognition with intelligent speed assist, side blind zone alert, lateral impact avoidance, rear cross traffic alert, lane departure warning with lane keep assist and AEB with forward collision alert.

Meanwhile, the new BMW X5 has also scored five stars, but it wasn’t a cut-and-dried result.

While the car meets all of the five- star requirements – including AEB-based active safety systems that detect both pedestrians and cyclists - it was noted that emergency lane keeping functionality is not available on the X5.

“The X5’s autonomous emergency braking system scored close to full points across all test scenarios for the avoidance of pedestrians and cyclists in both daylight and night-time conditions,” said Goodwin, who noted that there was an issue with an airbag.

“Engineers noted concerns with the deployment of the knee airbag, and a penalty was applied against the test results of both the frontal offset and full width frontal tests,” confirmed Goodwin. “Areas of the dash were also identified as a potential source of injury for the driver’s knees, and penalties were applied.”

The five-star ANCAP safety rating for the X5 is currently restricted to the 3.0 litre diesel model. Local BMW Australia officials indicated that they were pleased that the car had achieved the five-star rating.

How important is an ANCAP five-star rating to your buying decision? Does this score change your thinking about the Acadia? Let us know in the comment section below.