FAQ

A list was developed with the top selling cars and their sales volume. Latin NCAP stakeholders have selected seven of the top ten selling models in the region during the first two phases of the Programme. 

Selection of the cars:

This new phase of Latin NCAP is based on market sales volumes of 9 different Countries in South and Central America plus Mexico: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay.

With all the figures collected Latin NCAP made a table of all the cars’ total sales in all the assessed countries and a proportional (per capita) sales index per country. With these statistics taken together, an overall sales list was drawn up. From this list, Latin NCAP selected the cars that are top selling in as many countries as possible.

In those selected by Latin NCAP the models must be the most basic safety equipped version available in any country of the Latin American market. The intention is to test the most popular cars, widely available and commonly purchased on the market.

Any manufacturer can sponsor any car at any time. However in a manufacturer sponsored car, Latin NCAP will also test the most basic safety equipped version if the manufacturer has submitted a vehicle with more equipment than the basic version.

No, Latin NCAP buys the cars at dealers and transports them to the laboratory. At the end of the process the manufacturer is invoiced by Latin NCAP.

At dealers, like any consumer does.

Latin NCAP presents the results to the manufacturers before publishing, allowing them to respond and engage in discussions and explanations. Latin NCAP always makes the final decision regarding the information published.Yes. When Latin NCAP selects a car for the test, the manufacturer is informed.  The manufacturer is invited to witness the crash test. 

As a new programme, Latin NCAP has started off with the frontal impact tests. As based on UN regulation 94, the frontal impact test is a key safety test for vehicles. The frontal impact test provides enough evidence to be able to make a judgment on the safety of a vehicle and risks to car occupants.

Latin NCAP is still in its early stages and will develop further. It hopes to carry out side and pole tests, whiplash and pedestrian tests as the Programme develops in future.

The star ratings in Euro NCAP cannot be directly compared with the star ratings in Latin NCAP. Euro NCAP makes the final star rating from 5 different tests: Frontal off-set, side, pole, whiplash and pedestrian tests. Latin NCAP only performs the frontal off-set crash test to develop the star rating for each car. This is why there is no possible comparison between both star ratings.

Latin NCAP frontal crash test itself is the same as performed by Euro NCAP. So the performance of the car in the frontal crash test can be directly compared between the two. This test does give a very good indication of the safety performance of the car.

To improve vehicle safety, the establishment of NCAPs in all world regions, including Latin America, is a recommendation of the Global Plan for the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020.

It is good that we now have Latin NCAP, but we probably should have come even earlier. The change in world figures of car production, increasing in the BRIC countries, is one reason. Very soon the BRIC countries will lead the world markets. These will become the most important markets for the manufacturers.