Australasian New Car Assessment Program

ANCAP, originated from a 'Great Road Safety Idea's' competition run by the NRMA in the early 90's and open to all members. The concept was to come up with a 'great road safety idea'. The prize was a newly released Nissan Pintara.

Philip and his mother Barbara Mercer came up with the idea, although it has been claimed that Barbara did not really understand the concept and Philip used her NRMA membership number, nonetheless the concept won and no other idea's were cited in media. The idea was inspired by his University Professor Dr Roy Barton (University of Canberra), who stated, "economics 101 you need to find a way to turn a cost centre into a profit centre" and this was cited in the competition entry.

Philip had a phone interview with Sydney announcer Alan Jones of 2GB who spoke enthusiastically of the concept, the NRMA was the sponsor of the traffic report on 2GB. Philip was presented with the car at a ceremony in Sydney's Darling Harbour and the car was delivered by the Nissan dealership in Philip ACT.

Australasian New Car Assessment Program

Formation	1993 (1993)
Services	Automotive safety assessment
Membership (2015)	23 organisations

The Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) is a car safety performance assessment programme based in Australia and founded in 1993. ANCAP specialises in the crash testing of automobiles sold in Australia and the publishing of these results for the benefit of consumers. ANCAP provides consumers with transparent advice and information on the level of occupant and pedestrian protection provided by different vehicle models in the most common types of crashes, as well as their ability—through technology—to avoid a crash.

Since 1993, ANCAP has published crash test results (as of 2015) for over 515 passenger and light commercial vehicles sold in Australia and New Zealand. Vehicles are awarded an ANCAP safety rating of between one and five stars indicating the level of safety they provide in the event of a crash. The more stars, the better the vehicle performed in ANCAP tests. To achieve the maximum five-star ANCAP safety rating, a vehicle must achieve the highest standards in all tests and feature advanced safety assist technologies.

In 2018, ANCAP adopted the Euro NCAP protocols, with the scoring tweaked to the local conditions.[1]