| SAFETY FIRST |
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| Safety, it was once said, never sold a car. Instead, speed and performance
were the key factors in terms of one vehicle being chosen ahead of
another. How times have changed. In today’s safety-conscious environment, safety sells like never before with manufacturers falling over themselves to claim a unique selling point over a rival with a new safety feature added as standard to a vehicle, or a sophisticated new device available as an option. The 1997 launch of the European New Car Assessment Programme, which gives vehicles an easy-to-understand rating for both occupant and pedestrian protection, was the launchpad for the safety crusade. In the following pages, we discuss the latest safety features with some of the major fleet manufacturers and focus on some of the new safety features appearing on the latest models. In addition, we list the Euro NCAP results (page 47) for all models so far tested and on sale in the UK, and explain the benefits of drivers having ABS, EBA, EBFD, ESP and numerous other sophisticated safety systems fitted to their vehicles, which appear on the following pages. |
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