Holden’s New Colorado scores top rating and gives thumbs up for pedestrians

The Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) has awarded the MY17 Holden Colorado a five-star rating.

Holden’s locally-engineered Chevrolet-based ute has been given particular praise for its segment-leading pedestrian protection score in the crash test. Traditionally, large 4WD utes have scored poorly in pedestrian protection due to the inherent design of the vehicle

ANCAP CEO James Goodwin praised the unexpected good result for the odds-against vehicle.

“This is only the second utility we have rated that has achieved a ‘Good’ pedestrian protection score,” he said. “The improvements made to the Colorado include changes to the frontal structure, airbag configuration and restraint system.”

Image: ANCAP Left: Child & adult head impact. Right: Adult leg impact

While most model upgrades include cosmetic tweaks such as headlight, bonnet, front and rear bumper and occasionally an interior styling adjustment – and in some cases a technology update – Holden has gone beyond the call of market duty by adding tangible mechanical changes.

“Mid-cycle updates for cosmetic purposes are common across all makes and models,” Mr Goodwain said, “but it is pleasing to see Holden has made mid-cycle safety improvements to their popular light commercial vehicle. These changes deliver a one-star improvement for all single and space cab variants which previously held a four-star ANCAP safety rating.”

“Light commercial vehicles, like utes, tend to have stiffer bumper and grill components than passenger cars,” said Mr Goodwin. “LCVs also tend to have longer life cycles than passenger vehicles meaning it takes longer for newer, safer designs to enter the market.”

The Colorado joins the MY15-onward Toyota HiLux for ‘Good’ pedestrian protecting rating in ANCAP testing.
“The two utes most recently rated by ANCAP have revealed top pedestrian protection scores. They have ‘pedestrian friendly’ designs. This is an extremely promising sign of a changing landscape where the safety of pedestrians is being regarded by industry as just as important as the safety of occupants – no matter what vehicle segment.”

The Colorado crash test results apply to all vehicles built from July 2016 onwards which come with dual frontal, side chest and side curtain (head-protecting) airbags, as well as drive knee airbag. Advanced seat-belt reminders apply to the first and second rows of seating while the fold-out jump seats do not include reminders.

In the frontal offset test at 64km/h the Colorado scored 13.86 out of 16, plus a perfect 16 out of 16 for the side impact test and two-for-two on the pole impact test. Whiplash and pedestrian protection scored the aforementioned ‘Good’ verdict, and the technical report indicates the “passenger compartment held its shape well in the frontal offset test.”
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It’s not all roses for the Colorado as ANCAP looks into the future for aligning with EURO NCAP protocols, recognising the ute lacks several safety assist technology such as any form of auto-emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, blind spot monitoring, speed sign recognition. However some of this technology like lane support, reversing collision avoidance, roll stability, manual speed limiting, following distance warning, and emergency stop signal does come on some variants.

Watch the gut-wrenching MY17 Holden Colorado crash test video on the ANCAP YouTube channel and see the full technical report on the website www.ancap.com.au

*Images: ANCAP YouTube channel