Five stars for Alfa Romeo Giulietta

The cute Alfa Romeo Giulietta has recently been awarded a 5 star crash rating by Euro NCAP. With an overall score of 87 points from a maximum of 100 the Giulietta ranks as the safest car in the compact class.

In 2009 Euro NCAP raised the bar on what is required to achieve a 5 star rating and the testing is still on a upward sliding scale. By 2012 the testing regime will have reached its toughest measure. The good news for Alfa is the Giulietta just tested has achieved a high enough score that will ensure its maximum rating will still be achieved.

Crash testing rates four main criteria: Adult Occupant, Child Occupant, Pedestrian Protection and Safety Assist. In those categories the Giulietta scored an almost perfect 97% for Adult Occupant protection and a very high 85% for Child Occupant safety. Pedestrian Protection was rated at 63% and a score of 86% for Safety Assist shows the car’s on board electronic safety systems are very effective.

More from Alfa Romeo and Euro NCAP after the break.

ALFA ROMEO GIULIETTA: THE SAFEST COMPACT EVER

Alfa Romeo Giulietta has been awarded the prestigious Euro NCAP five-star rating and an overall score of 87/100: an impressive result that makes it the safest compact ever.

The rating is even more important considering that since 2009 Euro NCAP has adopted a new scheme composed of four areas of assessment, namely Adult Occupant, Child Occupant, Pedestrian Protection and a new area: Safety Assist. Injury avoidance and mitigation functions, such as seat belt reminder, ESP and speed limiter, are also rated. Achieving a five-star rating will become increasingly tougher year by year (2009, 2010-2011, 2012). In this scenario, the rating achieved by the Alfa Romeo Giulietta (97% Adult Occupant, 85% Child Occupant, 63% Pedestrian Protection and 86% Safety Assist) means that the car will also have a five-star rating in 2012 when the system will have reached maximum severity.

This major accolade yet again confirms Alfa Romeo’s special commitment to all aspects relating to the protection of all road users. The Alfa Romeo Giulietta was designed and built to obtain maximum passive and active safety performance. Proof of this, for instance, is the adoption of the most advanced electronic dynamic control devices (for braking and traction): the Vehicle Dynamic Control system, which manages key functions, like Hill Holder, traction control and emergency braking, the MSR system, which prevents wheel locking when the throttle is released, the DST (Dynamic Steering Torque) system, Electronic Q2, which electronically simulates the presence of a self-locking differential, and the brand-new Prefill system, which alerts the braking system that the accelerator pedal has been released, to decrease intervention time and consequently braking distance.

Thousands of hours of virtual simulations enabled the creation of the new Compact platform, which is making its debut in the Giulietta – and the entire car using only four prototypes. The quality of virtual design has been materially put to the test on the cars made at the Cassino plant by running 200 tests on components and subsystems, more than 100 Hyge slide shock test simulations and more than 80 crash tests (frontal impact, side impact, roll-over and shunting, taking various speeds, different types of obstacles and the need to protect occupants, physically very different from one another, into account). These numbers confirm the profound commitment to making the Alfa Romeo Giulietta one of the safest cars inEuropeby insuring that it contains the most advanced safety systems.

Total protection is evidenced by six airbags as standard (two of which are Multistage), three-point seatbelts with double pretensioners and load limit limiters and SAHR (Self Aligning Head Restraints), a new second-generation device built into the backrests of the front seats that moves the head restraints closer to the occupants’ heads in the event of an impact to lessen the effects of whiplash. There is also a highly significant contribution to occupant and pedestrian protection provided by the body, the bonnet, the doors and the dashboard crossmember, in addition to the seats and steering column. The efficacy of all these devices is maximised by a three load line front structure that guarantees structural uniformity and consequently uniformity of response in the event of frontal impact regardless of the type of obstacles or vehicle that the car crashes into. This is a breakthrough in partner protection, because the vehicle is less aggressive when crashing into the front or side of another vehicle, and in self protection, because the uniform deformation makes the retaining systems more effective regardless of the type of accident.

Finally, in the field of preventive safety, the Alfa Romeo Giulietta adopts headlamps with Daytime Running Lights that are automatically switched on when the engine is started – to meet a specific European standard that will come into force in 2012 – and LED tail lights, brighter than conventional bulbs, for extra safety.