Honda's new Civic hatch was recently voted one of the safest cars in the world by crash-test specialists Euro NCAP.

The new Honda Civic hatch, which will be launched in South Africa later this year, has been awarded a maximum five-star rating.

The rating programme focuses on a vehicle’s overall safety performance, which gives consumers an easy-to-understand single score. The system considers occupant protection, child protection, pedestrian protection and the availability of driver aids.

What’s interesting to note is that since the introduction of Euro NCAP’s new rating scheme in February 2009, all Honda models sold in the UK achieved five stars.

Michiel van Ratingen, Euro NCAP secretary-general, said: “The ninth generation Civic impressed and achieved high scores in all areas of assessment, putting it on a par with its rivals in this competitive market segment.”

One of the reasons for the Civic’s success is Honda’s ongoing research and development at its car-to-car crash test facility in Tochigi that analyses impacts between models of different sizes and weights and develops solutions to mitigate injuries for both passengers and pedestrians.

Its omni-directional vehicle-to-vehicle crash test facility, opened in 2001, is the world’s first indoor facility of its type.