The Volvo S80 is the first car in the world to get top results in both European and American crash tests, carried out by the three independent test institutes, Euro-NCAP, US-NCAP and IIHS (Insurance Institute of Highway Safety). The results indicate that the Volvo S80 is the safest car in the world.

The ongoing NCAP tests are part of the consumer information provided by NHTSA, the American traffic safety authority. The cars tested are evaluated in both a frontal crash test and in a side impact test.

In July 1999, the Volvo S80 became the first car in the world to score full points for both the driver and passengers in side-impact tests. At the end of October 2000, the front-impact test was carried out and once again, the Volvo S80 came out on top, giving it the model’s second five plus five-star rating.

The Volvo S80 had already previously been awarded the highest possible ranking in the American Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) frontal impact test, "Best Pick", and top marks in the European NCAP tests. Euro-NCAP carries out both a frontal offset crash test as well as side-impact tests against both a dummy car and a lamp post.

"Here we have a number of different tests, carried out by three mutually independent organisations, all coming to the very same conclusion. As a company policy, we do not generally draw attention to top results in individual tests since we do not feel that a single test is sufficient to assess a car model’s overall safety level, but this clearly shows that the Volvo S80 has a safety level of absolute world class," says Christer Gustafsson, safety expert at Volvo Car Corporation.

"In fact, the actual safety level of the Volvo S80 is even more comprehensive than these tests suggest. The tests only cover some of the situations that the Volvo S80 is designed to withstand. Nor do the tests rate the multitude of advanced systems found in the car, for example the WHIPS whiplash-protection system," adds Christer Gustafsson.