Cars all stop within the same distance don’t they? Well that’s what many of us thought but apparently not; Which Magazine has recently carried out trials on vehicles' braking distances. Two cars they featured in a test they carried out for the BBC’s One Show recently, were the VW Polo and Suzuki Alto. The results were quite alarming, or they were if your car happens to be a Suzuki Alto.

Both cars were driven at the same speed before braking and yet the VW Polo stopped within 34.16 metres and the Suzuki Alto within 42.52 metres, a difference of nearly 8 metres. This could represent the difference between life and death for the occupants of the car and almost certainly for a pedestrian, if the car was braking to avoid a pedestrian. This is particularly concerning if you are a parent.

Which magazine raises a very interesting question; why do manufacturers produce so much information on their vehicles’ performance and yet braking distances are never mentioned? Manufacturers have made their excuses as to why they don’t publish those figures but it is information we need to know. The fact that Which Magazine has highlighted this issue must be very inconvenient but an issue of which Manufacturers will have to take notice. The more organisations like Which Magazine and Euro NCAP, draw attention to vehicles’ failings, the safer we will all be.