Nissan Navara fails Euro NCAP testing

Vehicle safety is important today like no time in our past. All the major auto-producing countries have adopted not only standards and requirements but rigorous testing methods. The end goal is protecting the people that buy cars, so it's important that those that do poorly in the tests are publicized. Nissan's Navara pickup truck is one such poor performer, but the company says it has already fixed the problem and re-tested.

Testing showed there was a fault in the original Navara's airbag system which caused it to deploy too late to help the occupants in case of a crash. In fact, the problem only affects pickups built between May and December 2007 - those produced before and after are not affected. Nissan has issued a notice for customers to come in to local dealers to fix the problem. The airbag failure is said by Euro NCAP to cause 'an unacceptably high risk of life-threatening injury' to adults in the vehicle.

The Navara received a score of just one star out of five for adult occupants, three of five for children and two of four for pedestrians. The one star for adult occupants was later struck through for the likelihood of driver head and passenger neck injuries. Nissan insists the problems seen in the first Euro NCAP test are resolved by their repair. The new airbag control unit software resolves the problem that led to the low scores. The results of the fixed Navara re-test should be published soon.

If you or someone you know owns a Nissan Navara built during the period above, get it fixed. Quickly.