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Citroen C4 Cactus Receives 4-Star Rating from Euro NCAP

Just as the automotive press is focusing on the upcoming Paris Motor Show this week, the guys at Euro NCAP came out of nowhere with three of their independent crash test results. The most significant is a 4-star rating for the Citroen C4 Cactus, a crossover that's only slightly larger than a supermini and on which the French car brand is pinning most of its hopes this year.
Citroen C4 Cactus 1 photo
Photo: screenshot from Youtube
Considering the Cactus was designed to be cheap and light, the 4-star rating isn't all that surprising. But missing out on one star means Citroen will have a slightly tougher time in the marketing department.

The 4-star result doesn't actually tell the whole story. Citroen's new crossover is not actually unsafe, having scored about 80% worthiness in adult occupant, child occupant and pedestrian protection. Only the severe side impact pole test found chest protection to be marginal, the rest of the crash dummy readings being either good or adequate.

This being a cheaper urban runabout, the C4 Cactus hasn't been designed with active safety features, which is probably why one less star was awarded. Dacia's affordable Duster crossover only managed a 3-star score after the much less stringent tests that were carried out in 2011. Its results were well off the pace of the Cactus in stability control and protection, but only slightly lower in adult occupant protection (82% vs 74%).

The crash test video below was released this morning by Euro NCAP and shows how the vehicle impacts a barrier at 64 km/h using 40% of the front end's width . In the side impact, a mobile deformable barrier impacts the driver's door at 50 km/h. While in the pole test, the car tested is propelled sideways at 29km/h into a rigid pole.

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About the author: Mihnea Radu
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Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
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