NCAP 4WD Safety Tests

The Australian New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) test vehicles by the "standard" method of running them into an immovable object (a block of concrete) at 56kph (~35mph) in the "full frontal" position and, in a more sever test, at 64kph (~40mph) (previously 60kph ~37mph) in an "offset" position.

NCAP report that four wheel drives do not perform particularly well. Just best was the Land Rover Discovery (1993...), (US tests, similar to the Australian model), which rated `marginal', just short of `acceptable' on a scale of poor, marginal, acceptable and good. Toyota Prado (1997...) and RAV4 (1997...) rated marginal and Kia Sportage (1997...) rated poor. NCAP was critical of Kia for not offering US-standard seat-belts and airbags as standard. Toyota Landcruiser (1992-97) and Mitsibishi Pajero (1993-97) were marginal. Nissan Patrol (1992-97) and Suzuki Vitara (1991-95) performed poorly.

The issue of four wheel drive safety is currently the subject of debate because results of actual road crashes, rather than the artificial crash tests above, show that large four wheel drives fare rather better. This can perhaps be put down to a 4WD being (on average) larger and heavier than any other car involved in a car-car collision and, all other things being equal, the heavier vehicle suffers lower forces.

Go to the 4WD-Safety pages