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Thatcham Research sees 45 per cent drop in third party personal injury claims
The Volkswagen Golf and Passat models have been praised by the vehicle safety experts after seeing the drop in third party personal injury insurance claims due the fitment of auto-emergency braking systems.
The latest generation Golf went on sale in the UK in January 2013. All except for the entry-level S models have Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) as standard, with ACC including the radar sensor controlled distance monitoring system Front Assist, as well as city emergency braking and cruise control.
Since launch, third party injury claims on the latest Golf are 45 per cent lower than for the equivalent ‘Small Family Car Control Group’.
Matthew Avery, Director of Safety at Thatcham Research, said: “These findings are based on the equivalent of more than 7,000 Mk VII Golf models insured for a full 12 months on the road, and come from claims data from our insurance members. When we saw figures based on an initial small sample, we were surprised, as they exceeded our own performance testing.”
The new Passat which went on sale in the UK in January also now has ACC as standard on all but S models.
With a further developed system, as well as the ability to detect pedestrians, early indications from Thatcham are that the reductions in accidents could be even more significant.
ACC is also available on other models including the Polo and Touareg, while city emergency braking is offered on the up! city car.
Commenting on the findings, Alex Smith, Director of Volkswagen UK, said: “We knew the fitment of ACC was significant when we launched the Golf, and this was reflected in reduced insurance group ratings from Thatcham. To have even greater than expected reductions reflected in real world accident data is fantastic, as we know we’re contributing to cutting the human and financial impacts of accidents as well.”
