Really need to have a look at the data behind all those stars. What the various results were for each area of assessment they used to rollup to the simplistic star number. NHTSA, IIHS, ENCAP, ANCAP, etc all assess differently and then there's the periodic "re-grading" where a 5-star car under the previous protocol drops to 2 or 3 under the new assessment. Confusing doesn't come close. How does the average punter keep up? New Defo/LR2020 will absolutely be 5-star everywhere to the newest protocols IMHO. No way they'd release a (truly) all new model off a brand new, cutting-edge platform and not easily meet the criteria everywhere on Earth. They know it'll get harder to maintain over time so you have to have something up your sleeve...
When NCAP started they believed that a 5-star car was near impossible to achieve (to that criterea it'd struggle to get 2 stars at best nowadays). A decade later many manufactures were meeting it. So they made it harder. Rinse repeat. And they made it harder. Rinse repeat. And then they added a bunch of other criterea regarding avoidance tech so it became increasingly less about crash safety and more about potentially avoiding the crash in the first place. And it'll continue to evolve and change and get more confusing.
The companies that continue to design for real world crashes (Volvo as one notable) tends not to get caught out by new test methods where those that design to meet the exact tests can have sone horrific results. Look up SORB testing in the US as a good example of this. Most cars failed it catastrophically at introduction as they were optimised around the 40% overlap deformable barrier test that had been the mainstay.
DiscoClax
'94 D1 3dr Aegean Blue - 300ci stroker RV8, 4HP24 & Compushift, usual bar-work, various APT gear, 235/85 M/Ts, 3deg arms, Detroit lockers, $$$$, etc.
'08 RRS TDV8 Rimini Red - 285/60R18 Falken AT3Ws, Rock slider-steps, APT full under-protection, Mitch Hitch, Tradesman rack, Traxide DBS, Gap IID
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