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THIS WEEK, A reader asks:
What are the safest cars on sale today?
The answer:
There are many different tests that determine a car’s safety rating. America has its own car safety tests, and Japan, Australia and New Zealand, Latin American and the Caribbean, Korea and Southeast Asia all have New Car Assessment Programmes.
In Europe we have the EuroNCAP, which puts new cars through a series of crash and safety tests and awards one to five stars depending on how well the car performs. There is also a percentage rating for adult occupant safety, child occupant safety, pedestrian safety and safety assist, which tests important driver assist technologies.
You can have a look at all the cars tested and the results on the EuroNCAP website.
Back in 1997 when the tests first started manufacturers were complaining that the tests were too tough and impossible to gain four stars. However, by the end of the year the Volvo S40 was given a four-star rating for occupant safety. The tests were working to encourage car makers to build safer cars. EuroNCAP claims that cars are now the ‘safest ever’.
But it wasn’t just the tests that helped improve safety – other factors have also made cars safer. One of the main reasons is that steel is getting stronger, from about 500megapascal of tensile strength in the early 2000s to around 1,500megapascal today. Using high-strength steel with other materials like aluminium, magnesium and carbon fibre, designers can create structures that dissipate and redirect crash forces more effectively than they could 15 years ago.
Vehicles are also now fitted with lots of safety equipment as standard including pretension seat belts and airbags – yup, these used to be optional or non-existent! Cars also have anti-locking brakes and electronic stability control as standard, as well as daytime running lights.
So which cars are actually safest?
If we look at the EuroNCAP ratings we can see that the safest cars ever tested are all Volvos!
The Volvo S90 and V90 were tested this year and surpassed the overall score of any model tested last year. The cars got five stars and scored 95% for Adult Occupant, 80% for Child Occupant, 76% for Pedestrian and 93% for Safety Assist.
Back in 2015 the XC90 scored five stars and 97% for Adult Occupant, 87% for Child Occupant, 72% for Pedestrian and 100% for Safety Assist. So the top three safest cars ever tested are by the Swedish car maker.
Other cars with high safety scores are the Toyota Prius, Mercedes-Benz GLC, Mercedes-Benz V-Class, Land Rover Discovery Sport, Jaguar XF and the Mercedes-Benz E-Class.
See how far cars have come in terms of safety and watch the difference in crashworthiness between a late-90s Rover 100 and the recent Honda Jazz.
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