The New Honda Jazz Awarded 5 Star NCAP Rating

The Honda Jazz has been awarded the maximum five star rating matching the achievements of the Honda Civic and Honda Accord earlier this year. Euro NCAP's new rating scheme focuses on the vehicle's overall safety performance which gives consumers an easy to understand single score. The new system considers passenger protection during impact to the front, side and rear of the car, and pole (if the car impacts with a tree or other fixed narrow object). Child protection, pedestrian protection and the availability of driver safety aids are also considered.

The Euro NCAP rating for the Honda Jazz reflects Honda's commitment to passenger and pedestrian safety. 'Real-world' safety has always been an important consideration for Honda when developing new models. Honda's car-to-car crash test facility at the Tochigi R&D plant analyses impacts between models of different sizes and weights and develops solutions to avoid injuries for all parties.

Vehicle Stability Assist (VSA): Helps the driver to maintain control during cornering, acceleration and sudden manoeuvres; by applying braking to the right or left wheels as necessary and managing the engine torque systems as required.

Advanced Compatibility Engineering (ACE): The Jazz shell is a protective cocoon constructed of 42 per cent high tensile steel that disperses energy produced from a crash - boosting protection for its passengers by 20 per cent.

The Advanced Compatibility Engineering (ACE) body structure is now a well-established feature in Honda's safety armoury. Designed to protect passengers in a variety of 'real-world' crash conditions, these include: a frontal collision between vehicles of differing heights, weights and frame construction. The ACE body structure of the Honda Jazz prevents cabin crumple whilst reducing the chances of vertical or lateral misalignment between the Honda Jazz and another vehicle's safety structures. The ACE structure provides exceptional stiffness which also improves side impact protection.

Pedestrian protection: The Honda Jazz is packed with features to protect pedestrians. Research has shown that these features can dramatically improve a pedestrian's chance of survival if struck by a moving vehicle. Features include: windscreen wiper pivots designed to break away on impact, energy absorbing front wing mounts and bonnet hinges, as well as a clear area beneath the bonnet to allow it to crumple and absorb impact.

Active headrests: The new Honda Jazz is also equipped with front seat active headrests which reduce the likelihood of neck injury in rear impacts. As the occupant is pushed against the seat back, a rigid plate in the seat presses a link to the headrest pushing it up and forward to support the head.

Airbags and seatbelts: Dual front, side and full-length side curtain airbags are fitted as standard on all Honda Jazz models; the front seatbelts have load limiting pretensioners. Two ISOFIX fittings in both the left and right rear seats together with tether anchor points in the rear roof ensure correct installation and secure child-seat mounting points.

Braking: The Honda Jazz comes with Anti-lock Braking System (ABS), Electronic Brake-force Distribution (EBD) and Emergency Brake Assist (EBA).

The NCAP crash test result comes as sales of the Honda Jazz exceed the half million mark in Europe, proving the TARDIS-like supermini's continued popularity.