by Carla Simpson | 2 min read March 24th, 2021
Shopping around for a new car can be stressful and overwhelming. There is so much to think about from price, make and model to fuel consumption and comfort. Sometimes the safety of the car can get overlooked. Let’s be honest, safety isn’t one of the first attributes you think about when buying a new car but it is definitely one of the most important.
How can you tell if a car is safe? What safety features should you be looking out for? A great tip is to look out for the Euro New Car Assessment Programme star ratings of the vehicle. The more stars, the better the safety features!
What is Euro NCAP?
The European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) and is a vehicle safety rating system which awards stars based on the performance of a vehicle. A variety of tests are undertaken that aim to replicate real life crash scenarios.
The top rating is five stars which means a vehicle has an overall good performance in crash protection and is well equipped with crash avoidance technology. The Euro NCAP rates vehicles on four safety criteria:
- Adult protection
- Child protection
- Pedestrian protection
- Safety assist devices
What are vehicle safety features?
Vehicle safety features are systems in a vehicle designed to prevent a crash or protect you in the event of one occurring, e.g. electronic stability control (ESC) helps control the vehicle in hazardous conditions such as skidding on ice or aquaplaning on surface road water; an airbag is a safety feature that will activate to protect you from being injured in a collision.
Why is it important to have safety features in a car?
Choosing a car with safety features not only offers serious protection in the event of a crash, it could prevent the crash altogether. Research from Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety 2016 shows that the risk of fatal injury in the event of a crash is reduced by 66% in cars which have performed well in terms of safety features when tested by the European new car assessment programme (Euro NCAP).
What are the safest vehicles on the market?
Now that we know what vehicle safety features are and why they are so important, let’s get to the fun part – looking at the cars! To save you time, we’ve put together a list of the safest vehicles available on the market. All vehicles listed below earned five-star ratings from the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP).
