Euro NCAP has described the new Toyota Yaris as the ‘benchmark for small family car safety’, after publishing the results of its 2020 test programme.
Euro NCAP carries out crash tests on new vehicles and provides motoring consumers with a ‘realistic and independent assessment’ of their safety performance.
The tests have been updated for 2020, including an all-new frontal offset test, which replaces the one previously used since the programme started in 1997,
It also features a new mobile progressive deformable barrier (MPDB) test that assesses the protection a car offers its occupants as well as the risks it poses to the car it has crashed into.
Euro NCAP has awarded Toyota’s fourth-generation Yaris the full five stars – saying that it emerges from the tests with ‘flying colours’.
It notes the vehicle’s small size and benign front end makes it ‘one of the less aggressive crash partners on the road’.
The Yaris also showcases the ‘rapid advancements in crash avoidance technology’, according to Euro NCPA, featuring the latest generation of Toyota Safety Sense – which has the ability to stop the vehicle during turning to avoid a crash with oncoming traffic.
Michiel van Ratingen, Euro NCAP’s secretary general, said: “Congratulations to Toyota on a top rating for the Yaris. This has been a tough year for all concerned and I am grateful to Euro NCAP’s labs and employees who have worked hard to deliver safety, while staying safe.
“We have had to adapt quickly to new working practices, and it is pleasing that the first car rated this year should have gone so far to address the safety issues that are emerging as top priorities.”
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