THE first cars to get Euro Ncap ratings in 2017 are Volvo's S90 saloon and its V90 estate sibling, and Ford's latest Mustang.
It's good news for Volvo, as you might expect, with the V90 and S90 - the companies rebooted challengers to the likes of the BMW 5 Series and Audi A6 - getting full marks as it benefits from the same safety tech that has already impressed in the company's XC90 SUV.
Standard-fit autonomous emergency braking for cars and pedestrians performed outstandingly well in Euro NCAP's tests and the vehicles also offer lane and speed assistance.
Indeed, the S90 and V90 results beat the best overall score of any model Euro Ncap tested last year and also mean the three best performing cars the organisation has ever crash tested are all Volvo models.
The Ford Mustang, on the other hand, scored a meagre two stars for overall safety, with Euro Ncap noting its concerns about the levels of crash protection for adult and child passengers and a worrying lack of the sort of safety equipment commonly available on the European market.
To underline just how dismal the Mustang's safety is, the last time Euro Ncap awarded a two-star rating to a top 10 car brand was in 2008...
Euro Ncap said the car had been designed "to score well in the less wide-ranging US consumer tests".
Airbags that didn't inflate sufficiently and seatbelts that allowed rear-seat passengers to slide under the belt were among the Mustang's failings.
Ford has said it will facelift the Mustang later this year to include safety improvements, and Euro Ncap has stated it will then test the car again.
Michiel van Ratingen from Euro Ncap said Volvo's results reflected the company's longstanding investment in safety.
"Ford did not expect Euro Ncap to test the Mustang and chose not to fit safety technology in Europe which is available to its American consumers, and available on several other sports cars for that matter," he said.
"Such an attitude to safety should trouble Ford's customers, whether they are buying a high-powered muscle car or a regular family car."
