What are the Safest Used Cars?

What are the safest used cars? 

Safety is an important factor to consider when purchasing a used car, families and individuals will want to make sure they are protecting themselves, their family and any passengers as much as possible. In this article we take a look at the NCAP safety ratings, what they cover, and which cars have achieved the best rating.  

What is NCAP? 

NCAP stands for New Car Assessment Program and is used in the EU as a way to measure the safety of new cars. The NCAP is an independent body that tests cars and provides them with a safety rating. NCAP can't test all cars but does test the most popular makes and models. At the end of the test the car is given a safety rating out of 5 stars. The safety rating is derived from a set of tests that span these four areas: adult occupant, child occupant, vulnerable road users and safety assist. For more detailed information visit the Euro NCAP website. 

Adult occupant - testing the protection provided to adult drivers and passengers from frontal, lateral and rear impact. 

Child occupant - testing the restraint system protection in frontal and side impact tests, how well the car fits child seats of different sizes and designs and whether isofix is available, and how easily children can be transported safely in the car. 

Vulnerable road users - this was previously a safety measure that looked at the protection for pedestrians. It now includes cyclists and considers, head impact, upper leg impact, lower leg impact. It also tests any autonomous emergency braking systems and their impact on pedestrians and cyclists. 

Safety assist - This set of tests looks at driver assist technologies and how they support safe driving. The tests consider accident scenarios and regular driving situations. 

Safest family cars 

The NCAP creates a list of the safest cars in each class of vehicle, so you can find the car safety rating easily and review the factors that make up that rating. Each aspect is given a percentage score out of 100%. In this section we take a look at some of the highest scoring vehicles in 2021 in the family car category. 

• Mercedes - EQ EQS 

• Nissan Qashqai 

• Audi Q4 e-tron 

• VW ID.4 

• Skoda ENYAQ iV 

Each of the vehicles listed above scored 5 stars for safety in the NCAP tests, making them some of the safest used family cars you can find on the market today.  

If you’re looking to purchase a used car and safety is of interest, we suggest using the NCAP website to search for vehicles you are interested in. You can then compare the safety ratings and take this into consideration.  

Cars with poor ratings 

There are some vehicles you may want to avoid if safety is a priority. Here is a list of the top 4 vehicles in 2021 that performed poorly and received the lowest NCAP ratings. 

• Renault Zoe - 0 stars 

• Dacia Spring - 1 star 

• Dacia Logan - 2 stars 

• Dacia Sandero Stepway - 2 stars 

Vehicle safety packs 

Many new vehicles can be fitted with extra safety packs as part of the personalisation options when buying from new. Therefore, there is going to be a number of these vehicles in the used car market that include additional safety features. This may be of interest if you are specifically looking to maximise the safety of your vehicle. We suggest looking at the specifications in depth to find used cars which have opted for additional safety features, these will include things such as rear passenger airbags, autonomous emergency braking, lane assist and blind spot detection. Each of these features may come as standard or as optional extras, we recommend you always thoroughly check the features of any vehicle before you commit to buying.