Should crash tests make their standards higher?

Question

Almost everyone knows that sweden is the home of safety. But is that in past tense already???I mean...now basicly Honda, Toyota, Jaguar, Renault (of coures), and even American cars make five stars crash ratings, so should crash tests make their standards higher?

Answer 1

Firstly, Sweden is no longer the home of safety.
As many car manufacturers utilise developing technologies the playing field is a lot more even these days.

Volvo have always used safety as a design influence, in the same way as Ferrari have always used performance and Land Rover have always used off road ability.
However, in the modern market where safety and economy have become more influencial to most buyers, manufacturers have adapted and focused more on safety performance.
This is why more and more vehicles are getting top ratings.

The second important point to make is that the regulations that govern vehicle safety are constantly being updated.
As with any legislation they are regularly revised and ammended to match new learning and new technologies.
Consumer assosciations also update their rating systems regularly. EuroNCAP are moving to a 6 star rating system within the next 3 years

The third key factor is that the safety ratings that the buying public see are relatively subjective.

A 5 star rating from EuroNCAP means that the vehicle has passed the EuroNCAP tests to an acceptable standard.
As these tests all require the occupants to wear seatbelts, and US Federal tests require some of the tests to be performed without a seatbelt, a vehicle that does well by European standards may not be rated as highly in North America.

As EuroNCAP and NHTSA (National Highways and Transportation Safety Authority) are both consumer associations rather than legal authorities they do not directly control the regulations that affect vehicle safety laws.

Also we need to consider that the ratings we see are overall ratings, and unless you see the breakdown of these (available on the websites of the different consumer associations) you do not know how safe the vehicle really is.
A car With EuroNCAP 4 star rating may be excellent for protecting those driving it, but very aggressive towards pedestrians it may impact, as a result the overall rating of the vehicle will be reduced.
Added to the fact that the testing is performed in a like-to-like scenario, small cars with a good rating would still not perform well versus bigger cars (the Smart is a prime example of this).

In short, the standards are constantly being updated, but manufacturers can tailor their cars to meet the regulations and consumer tests without necessarily making the car genuinely safer.

The basic laws of physics need to be applied as well as the consumer testing ratings the buying public sees.
Bigger, heavier vehicles will protect the occupants better than smaller, lighter vehicles.

Answer 2

Would be better to improve driver standards thus negating the need to be forced into paying for stuff we never really want to use (after all who really WANTS to have an accident?)

Answer 3

EuroNCAP is proposing a sixth star, and manufacturers are already working to develop cars that will earn it.