Car Finance Expert, Graham Hill, Advises Of New Safety Features On Cars

Thursday, 1. April 2010

Who are EuroNCAP? Do you know? Well it turns out that far too few people do so they are on a mission to become more visible. They are a group formed in 1997 by the Transport Research Laboratory and they are the organisation that crash tests every new car to award it safety stars from the driver’s perspective, passenger perspective and pedestrian perspective. Over the years many companies have insisted upon company cars being awarded at least 4 out of 5 stars with some insisting upon 5 star rated cars only. But it would seem that the public is not so aware of the existence of EuroNCAP or the work it does and the importance of safety. Ask many buyers of new cars what ESP is and they think only of all things spooky rather than the life saving Electronic Stability Program also known as ESC, Electronic Stability Control, proven to save more lives that ABS, both of which were created by Bosch. EuroNCAP have been responsible for the ESP/ESC system becoming mandatory on all new cars from 2011 as well as forcing all manufacturers to improve their car safety in order to qualify for the coveted 5 star safety rating. Whilst safety is critical not everyone sees the real benefit when they compare the safety benefit with cost. Individually the changes don’t seem to cost much but all of the mandated/proposed changes by the EU add up to an extra £2,500 per vehicle which is staggering on a car costing £8,000 at the moment. The mandated/proposed changes are as follows:

Date	Change	Cost
2011	Daytime Running Lights	£100
2012	Tyre Pressure Monitoring	£100
2012/14	Stability Control	£300
2012	Low Rolling Resistance Tyres	£100
2013	Seatbelt Reminders	£100
2013	Lane Departure Warning, Automatic Braking	£600
2014	E-call Automatic Emergency Service Call-Out	£250
2014	Emergency Brake Assist	£150
2015	GPS Speed Limiters	£300
2016	Pyrotechnic Bonnets	£500
		£2,500