The Ford Mustang Has A Shocking Safety Rating Outside The US

The Ford Mustang recently went on sale in the UK for the first time in 50 years. Some argue that it isn't a good fit in Europe because it was designed with the US market in mind – including safety regulations. This explains why the 2017 Ford Mustang has received a shocking two star safety rating during crash testing in the UK. In fact, it scored so poorly that the Mustang now has the dubious honor of being the first car from a major manufacturer to receive a two star Euro NCAP rating in almost a decade.

Ford is being accused of designing the Mustang to score well in US safety tests, but these standards don't comply with EU safety regulations:

"Ford did not expect Euro NCAP to test the Mustang and chose not to fit safety technology in Europe which is available to its American consumers, and available on several other sports cars for that matter," said Euro NCAP's general secretary Michiel van Ratingen in a scathing statement."Such an attitude to safety should trouble Ford's customers, whether they are buying a high-powered muscle car or a regular family car." The Mustang's adult occupant protection scored 72 percent, which is by no means impressive for a modern car, but it's the poor crash protection for children that's most alarming – child safety was scored at a mere 32 percent.

In side impacts, the head of the 10-year dummy smacked into the interior trim, and the driver and front passenger airbags failed to deploy sufficiently during a frontal offset crash test. The rear passenger also slid under the seatbelt during a full-width frontal crash test, increasing the risk of injury. The Mustang only received minor updates to meet European pedestrian safety standards - the Forward Collision Warning System, which comes as standard in the US Mustang, has been removed in the European-spec model. Consequently, the Mustang's Safety Assist category scored just 16 percent. Ouch.