The latest Kia Carnival released in New Zealand in January has stepped up its safety game, receiving a solid 5 star ANCAP safety rating.

The AA reported last year that the V6 Kia Carnival released in February 2015 revealed a heightened risk of serious injury to the legs and feet of the driver during the frontal offset crash test.

The test showed excessive movement of the park and foot brake pedals and significant footwell deformation. Dash components were also a potential source of injury to the knees, resulting in an ANCAP safety rating of only 4 stars.

However in its latest version of the people mover Kia has made significant improvements to protect passengers and the driver.

“It’s great to see manufacturers like Kia pushing to improve its vehicle safety standards. It also proves why ANCAP ratings are so important for creating an enhanced industry standard, giving consumers the confidence to buy the safest car they can afford,” says AA General Manager Motoring Services Stella Stocks.

The family car also boasts a suite of advanced safety technologies including electronic brakeforce distribution (EBD) electronic stability control (ESC) and emergency brake assist (EBA) as standard. Higher end variants of the model include blind spot monitoring, adaptive cruise control and lane support system (LSS).

The rating applies to all variants of the Kia Carnival manufactured from December 2015.

The Australasian New Car Assessment Programme (ANCAP) is Australasia’s leading independent vehicle safety rating programme. It publishes crash test results for a wide range of passenger and light commercial vehicle makes, models and variants sold in Australia and New Zealand since 1992.

ANCAP is supported by all Australian and New Zealand motoring clubs, the Australian Government, the New Zealand Government, all Australian state governments, the Victorian Transport Accident Commission, NRMA Insurance and the FIA foundation.

For a full list of ANCAP’s vehicle safety ratings, other vehicle safety information and the specifications of the rated vehicles visit the AA or NZTA websites.