Human Driver Crash Tests Megane For BBC's Top Gear
Published: 20th June 2003
Top Gear’s idea is to show how safe a car is that has scored the maximum 5-star rating in the independent EuroNCAP crash test programme. As the only 5-star car in the popular lower-medium family hatch market, the New Renault Mégane was the obvious choice for the Top Gear test.
Co-Presenter Richard Hammond commented, "Family cars like the New Mégane are bought by people because of their great design, level of equipment or comfort for example. But how many buyers think about the safety features of a car when they buy one? We on Top Gear wanted to remind people that safety should be one of the top reasons for a family car buying decision. So we decided to crash a New Mégane - the only family car to have scored the maximum 5-stars in the EuroNCAP crash test – with a real driver – one of our regular stunt drivers - behind the wheel into the side of another car – an all too common event!."
"What we wanted to show is what it means for a human driver to crash in a safe car, like the Renault Mégane. The added advantage was that we could get live feedback from our driver about what it felt like to hit another car at around 30mph. The results are just amazing and prove how strong a 5-star EuroNCAP car is."
The New Mégane joins its stablemates the Laguna and Vel
Satis with 5-star ratings making Renault the only company with three
cars in this exclusive club.
