Polo awarded maximum safety rating in Japanese NCAP crash testing programme
It scored highly in Europe and now the Polo’s done it Japan. In Japanese NCAP crash testing, the fifth-generation Polo has been awarded the top score of ‘six stars plus’ for occupant safety. Performing impressively in three different crash tests – frontal impact at 55km/h, offset frontal impact at 64km/h and side impact at 55km/h with a 950kg trolley – the car was also rated as the safest import vehicle on the Japanese market. Dominating the overall classifications, the Polo scored top grades in all categories for driver and front passenger safety. Lower loads at the head, neck, chest, upper legs and lower legs validated the excellent safety of the Polo and awarded it an additional ‘Plus’ in the evaluation.
Rear seat passenger tests did not feature in the six star rating, but the Polo scored well here, too, attaining level four out of five based on computations. Volkswagen’s supermini also scored the shortest braking distances on both wet and dry surfaces, coming to a stop from 100km/h in just 40.8 and 39.5 metres respectively. Safety played a big part in the development of the Polo 6R, and as the car achieved high marks in the EuroNCAP occupant, child and pedestrian safety crash tests (awarded a maximum of five stars), a strong performance in the Japanese equivalent should come as no surprise. The latest fifth-generation Polo is now a major small car player on the world market and been selling well since its introduction in June 2009 – globally, over 728,000 units of the compact car have been sold.