You've got your sights set on that car. It's the right price, looks good, and it's the perfect size for what you need.
But there are two crucial factors you may not have thought about. It is important that your vehicle offers you good protection from injury in a crash - but it is also important that your vehicle offers good protection to other road users, such as pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists or drivers of other vehicles, who may also be involved in a crash.
For example, the crash statistics analysed by Monash University indicate that large 4WDs are more likely to cause serious injuries to other road users in a crash than most other vehicle types.
The Used Car Safety Ratings charts provide you with an overall crash safety rating which includes a model's impact on unprotected road users and drivers of other vehicles. If you are serious about reducing road trauma you need to consider how your vehicle protects all road users, not just its own driver.
IF YOU CARE ABOUT THE SAFETY OF BOTH YOURSELF AND OTHERS, CONSIDER CHOOSING ONE OF THE BEST-RATED MODELS
This update gives ratings for 199 vehicle models which cover most of the popular vehicles in the Australian and New Zealand vehicle fleets manufactured from 1996 to 2008 and is the latest update of the Used Car Safety Ratings 2010 (PDF 1.4MB/2 pages) in a series released periodically since 1992.
It's worth taking a few minutes to find out how the vehicle you are considering purchasing compares. Those few minutes could save a life - your own, your passenger's or that of another road user.
Protecting you in a crash
If all vehicle designs were equivalent to the safest model, the number of fatal and disabling crash injuries could be significantly reduced.
Safety design features that may significantly reduce the risk of death or injury include:
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Crumple zones
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Collapsible steering columns
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Reinforced door frames
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Front, side and curtain airbags
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Seat belts designed to work with airbags.
Myths about vehicle safety
Myths about vehicle safetyMyths about vehicle safetyMyths about vehicle safetyMyths about vehicle safety
MYTH: You can take more risks if you've got a vehicle with safety features - they will save you in a crash.
FACT: While safety features are more likely to increase your chances of surviving a crash, they don't make you indestructible. Safety features won't necessarily save you from death or serious injury, particularly at higher speeds or if you're not wearing your seat belt.
MYTH: A safe vehicle is more expensive.
FACT: Many reasonably priced makes and models score very well in the safety ratings and better than some of the more expensive models.
MYTH: Older vehicles tend to be bigger and heavier, and therefore safer.
FACT: Older vehicles have been shown from crash records to be less safe on average than newer vehicles, due to fewer safety features and less sophisticated design.
How these safety ratings are calculated
Records from over 3 million vehicles in police-reported road crashes in New Zealand and Australia between 1996 and 2009 were analysed by Monash University's Accident Research Centre. The ratings were calculated using an internationally reviewed method and are influenced by the vehicle's mass, the structural design of the body and the safety features, such as airbags and types of seat belts, in the vehicle.
The ratings reflect how well individual models protect ALL road users from injury in the event of a crash, including cyclists, pedestrians and drivers of other vehicles. This is a better guide to the total community impact of vehicle safety than looking only at how each vehicle protects its own driver.
The ratings are about the risk of injury related to the vehicle in the event of a crash. They are not about the risk of being involved in the crash in the first place, which is generally determined by a range of factors including driver behaviour and crash environment.
This update features 199 vehicle models. New makes and models of used vehicles, as well as an additional year of crash data, have been added for this update meaning these ratings are not necessarily comparable with ratings in previous years' brochures. The scores for each individual make/model are compared against the ratings for all other vehicles. Because the ratings reflect the overall crash safety performance of a vehicle, a vehicle can only score well if it provides good protection from serious injury for its own driver, as well as for other drivers, pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists in the event of a crash.
What the scores mean
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Excellent |
the model falls in the best 15% of all models, the benchmark group |
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Good |
below benchmark |
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Marginal |
at least 50% worse than benchmark |
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Poor |
at least 100% worse than benchmark |
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Very poor |
at least 150% worse than benchmark |
Won't certain kinds of vehicles score a good rating because of the types of people who drive them or where they are driven?
These factors were taken into account as much as possible when the data were analysed. The ratings were adjusted for factors such as: driver gender and age, type of road user involved, speed limit at the crash location, number of vehicles involved, crash configuration and year of crash.
What's the difference between these ratings and new car safety ratings?
New car safety ratings (eg ANCAP) are determined by crash testing vehicles in a controlled laboratory setting while the used car safety ratings in this brochure are calculated using data from police reports on actual crashes.
Occupants of heavier vehicles in real two-vehicle crashes tyrpically fare better than those in lighter vehicles. This is why ANCAP crash test results should not be compared among vehicles with large weight differences. In many single-vehicle crashes, weight offers no safety advantage. ANCAP crash test ratings relate to occupant protection and the ability of the car to avoid a crash. ANCAP has separate ratings for a vehicle's ability to protect a pedestrian in a crash. The Used Car ratings listed here can be compared across all categories as they are derived from reports of actual on-road crashes. Used Car ratings represent both the ability of the car to protect its occupants and how likely it is to injure another road user in a crash.
Any vehicle safety rating system can only provide an indication of the relative levels of protection between vehicles you can expect in the event of a crash. Whether or not you die or are seriously injured in a crash also depends on how safely you drive your vehicle.
Newer vehicles are safer
An important finding of the Used Car Safety Ratings is that on average newer models provide their drivers with better protection from injury in a crash. These improvements come from better structural designs, as well as an increase in the fitting of safety features such as front, side and curtain airbags, more advanced seat belt systems and vehicle interiors built with plastics instead of steel, so that they provide padding when struck by a human occupant.
While average vehicle safety levels have improved over time, there is significant variation even between vehicle models of the same age. Furthermore, some vehicle models, including recent ones, provide good protection for their own drivers in a crash but do not score well in these overall safety ratings because they present a relatively high risk of injury to other road users in a crash. The Used Car Safety Ratings assist buyers to select vehicle models that provide the best protection for all road users including themselves.
Features to assist avoiding a crash
An increasing number of vehicles are being equipped with safety features that help drivers avoid a crash and these should be considered when purchasing a used car. Some of these features are:
Find out more
For more information please ring NRMA's Motoring Advice Line 13 11 22.
Results in previous years' format
In previous years, these results were presented as separate ratings, one for occupant protection and one for "aggressivity", or how individual vehicle models injured other road users. See the 2010 ratings as they were previously presented. (PDF 117KB/10 pages)
