Mazda 2, CX-3, CX-9 to stay on sale, despite expiring ANCAP ratings

Mazda says it has added technology to certain models due to have their safety ratings expire in the coming years, and they will remain on sale in Australia.

Mazda’s array of ageing models will remain on sale in Australia despite looming five-star safety rating expiration dates.

The Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) recently announced the safety ratings for vehicles tested in 2015 or earlier will expire at the end of this year.

For Mazda, this means key models such as the Mazda 2 hatch and sedan, CX-3 light SUV (both tested in 2015), and CX-9 large SUV (tested in 2016) will have their five-star safety ratings expire unless they resubmit the vehicles for a new round of testing under stricter criteria.

Similarly the MX-5 sports car will lose its 2016 five-star rating.

However, Mazda says the vehicles will remain on sale in Australia after these deadlines.

Mazda Australia marketing director Alastair Doak told Drive: “There’s no government regulation about passing or failing ANCAP. All of those cars got five stars when they were originally tested anyway, so there’s no issues there. You need to pass Australian Design Rules … to go on sale, and they all do that.”

As is the case with many manufacturers, Mazda has rolled out regular updates to its vehicles over time, including extra safety equipment on the models facing the five-star safety rating expiry.

When asked if cars were likely to retested to contemporary standards, Doak responded: “It’s a very expensive process to test them. So, fundamentally the cars haven’t changed. Obviously we’ve updated them along the years, we’ve added more safety equipment over the years, so they’re no less safe yesterday than they are today.”

In the case of the Mazda 2 the 2015 testing date applies to cars that had autonomous emergency braking (AEB) available only as an option. In 2017 Mazda made AEB standard across the range, adding features like reverse AEB, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross traffic alert, rear park sensors and reverse cameras standard on all models from 2019.

The CX-3 range tells a similar story. While the top-spec Akari came with AEB, blind-spot monitoring, and rear-cross traffic alert as standard equipment in 2015, these features were optional on all other grades. In 2017 forward and reverse AEB and rear park sensors were made standard and in 2018 a reverse camera was fitted to all grades.

The family-focussed CX-9 debuted with standard forward and reverse AEB, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross traffic alert, rear park sensors and reverse camera in 2017 and added tyre pressure monitoring in 2017. As of 2018 all variants added lane departure warning, lane keep assist, and adaptive cruise control – features previously reserved only for the top-grade Azami – along with a more advanced AEB system.

MORE: Five-star safety score expiry dates explained in detail

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