The European New Car
Assessment Program (E-NCAP), which is sort of the EU equivalent to our own NHTSA
or IIHS, recently tested the European version of the Chevy Aveo and found it to
be severely lacking in occupant protection during 64 kmh (40 mph) frontal impacts. The risk is especially great to the
driver, as the E-NCAP tests showed the Aveo’s steering wheel may cause severe chest injury.
The Aveo
received two stars and a strike through in the category of Adult Occupant Protection, the strike through indicating
there is a high risk for life-threatening injury. It should be noted that crash testing in Europe is done a bit
differently than here in the U.S., despite E-NCAP sharing a star rating system with the NHTSA. The differences are too
deep to delve into here, but you can check out a full explanation of the E-NCAP test procedures here.
The 2006 Chevy Aveo received an exemplary
frontal impact rating of 5 stars from the NHTSA, so we’ll be very interested to see if the North American version
of the 2007 Chevy Aveo fares as poorly in our own crash tests as it did in the E-NCAP test..
[Thanks to
Sergio Sanchez for the tip]
[warning : link leads to pdf]