India-bound Volkswagen Tiguan gets five stars in Euro NCAP tests
Volkswagen's latest offering the Tiguan SUV scored a five-star rating in the Euro NCAP tests. The India-bound SUV scored the top rating which was aggregated from the results from four subsections, namely occupant protection for adults and children, pedestrian protection and driver assistance systems.
Euro NCAP (New Car Assessment Programme), an independent organisation, has been regarded as one of the most important testing grounds for safety devices which are equipped on vehicles. This year, however, the organisation claims to have made the conditions of the test, a lot tougher than usual. The new Tiguan went through a series of crash tests, including frontal crash into an aluminium barrier at 64km/hr with 40 per cent overlap, frontal crash at 50km/hr into a rigid barrier with 100 per cent overlap, side impact at 50km/hr into the vehicle side structure and automatic emergency braking to avoid collisions with vehicles or pedestrians.
The new SUV scored an outstanding 96 per cent of the possible points for occupant safety for adults, 84 per cent for child safety, 72 per cent for pedestrian protection segment and 69 per cent for safety assistance. The child seat anchors and safety belt tensioners on the second row of seats ensured the dummy children well protected in any frontal or side impact. To reduce the risk of injury to passers-by, the Tiguan features an 'active bonnet' function which is designed to elevate the rear end of the bonnet in a collision to reduce head injuries.
The new Tiguan includes safety assistance features like standard ESC (Electronic Stability Control), seatbelt fastening reminder function in the back, front assist emergency braking system and the lane assist function that helps drivers stay in lane.
We drove the new Tiguan in Germany and found that it has good dynamics with smooth power delivery and seamless gear shifts via the 7-speed automatic transmission. The new Tiguan will be going up against the Audi Q3, BMW X1 and the Mercedes-Benz GLA. We expect Volkswagen India to launch the India-bound Tiguan at a much lower price than its German rivals.