What makes vehicles safer?
The findings from the ratings show that, on average, newer models provide greater protection in a crash. This protection comes from better structural design as well as the inclusion of safety features such as: crumple zones, collapsible steering columns, reinforced door frames, front, side and curtain airbags and safety belts designed to work with airbags. Learn more about these features.
About the Used car safety ratings
The Used car safety ratings provide two rating charts:
- the vehicle's ability to protect its own driver in a crash
- the vehicle's impact on unprotected road users and drivers of other vehicles in a crash.
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 a crash.
New makes and models of used vehicles are added in updates each year, along with available recent crash data.
The ratings
How the ratings are calculated
To develop the ratings, Australia's Monash University Accident Research Centre analysed the records of over 3 million police-reported road crashes in New Zealand and Australia between 1987 and 2007.
The rating are calculated using an internationally reviewed method and are influenced by the vehicles' mass, structural design and safety features.
As with any such rating system, the Used car safety ratings can only provide an indication of the protection a particular vehicle provides or the degree of harm it will cause others in a crash.
The ratings are about the risk of injury related to the vehicle in a crash - not the likelihood of you being in a crash, which is impacted by a range of factors including your driving behaviour.
See the full technical details on how the ratings are calculated (external link).
Impact of drivers and road conditions
The ratings are adjusted for factors such as:
- driver gender and age
- type of road user
- speed limit at the crash location
- number of vehicles involved
- crash configuration
- year of crash.
Comparison with new car safety ratings
New car ratings - such as ANCAP - use the results of controlled crash tests in laboratories. The Used car safety ratings use actual crash records. While the two ratings correlate well, the different nature of the information can produce a different assessment.
Both ratings can only offer an indication of protection offered by a vehicle in a crash. Whether or not you die or are seriously injured in a crash also depends on how safely you drive your vehicle.
