Official: European NCAP crowns Volvo V40 safest new car ever tested

Filed under: Europe, Safety, Crossover, Volvo

One of the safest cars ever built will not be sold in the United States. The Euro NCAP, similar to our National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, put the all-new 2013 Volvo V40 through a battery of crash tests and found that it is one of the safest cars it has tested.

The Euro NCAP's testing consists of cars being tested in four categories (adult occupant, child occupant, pedestrian and safety assist) for vehicle safety, and the V40 drove (or more likely was towed) away with some of the top scores the agency has ever handed out. The 98 percent adult occupant rating is the highest result recorded by the Euro NCAP, while the car's innovative pedestrian airbag helped it receive an equally impressive 88-percent rating for pedestrian safety. This safety device is actually an airbag underneath the hood, and when contact with a pedestrian is detected, the airbag inflates, raising the rear portion of the hood which helps to cushion the a person's head or body as it makes contact with the car.

The Volvo V40 was perfect in the safety assist category thanks to systems like Pedestrian Detection, City Safety, auto braking and numerous other active safety features. The only knock that the V40 took was to child occupant protection. Its 75-percent rating is one of the lowest of the recent batch of tested cars, which also includes the Audi A3, Kia Cee'd and Ford B-Max.

In addition to being one of the safest Volvos produced so far, the V40 is also one of the best-looking Volvo models ever. We already had a chance to sample the new V40 back in June, and we were impressed with the car and what it could do to bolster Volvo's U.S. lineup. Still, Volvo has stated that it has no intentions of selling its new compact hatchback here, despite the growth of the premium small car segment in this market.

Scroll down for Volvo's press release.

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European NCAP crowns Volvo V40 safest new car ever tested originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 02 Sep 2012 12:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.autoblog.com/2012/09/02/european-ncap-crowns-volvo-v40-safest-new-car-ever-tested/

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