News (Autocar 2 July 2014 p18) that Renault's Mégane only achieved three stars in the Euro NCAP crash test would be a surprise in itself, considering the efforts car makers put into producing safe vehicles nowadays. But the reason given for the car's shortcomings is even more surprising.
Euro NCAP's explanation is as follows: "the text informing the driver of the status of the rear seat belts was not available in all languages". This mistake, although relatively minor, cost Renault a whole star in the rating. Needless to say the manufacturer must be somewhat embarassed by this episode and will be doing something about it "very soon".
I think we can be certain that Renault will not be skimping on translation again, considering the cost of crash testing. Minor mistakes can indeed be very costly, whether they are the result of a bad translation, or no translation at all.
