Choosing the best used car to keep you safe

It's one of the biggest challenges facing road safety experts – our youngest and least experienced drivers can't afford new cars with the latest crash protection and safety aids. It's one of the big reasons they are over-represented in fatal and serious injury crashes.

However, a landmark study into real-world crashes in Australia aims to compile and compare data on fatalities and serious injuries – and rank used cars from best to worst.

It means that, even when buying a used car on a budget, choosing the right one could cost or save your life.

The latest instalment of the study is based on the real-world results of more than nine million crashes in Australia and New Zealand.

The difference between the best and worst cars in a particular vehicle category can make you up three times safer, while the used cars that topped the charts in the 2022 Used Car Safety Ratings are up to eight times safer.

Just 55 used cars from a field of 389 are given a five-star safety rating, and 59 scored 'very poor', in the latest ratings compiled by the Monash University Accident Research Centre in Melbourne.

At the top of the field, only 13 used cars are given the 'Safer Pick' status.

“What price do you put on your life?”, the head of the research team that compiles the ratings, Professor Stuart Newstead from the Monash University Accident Research Centre, told Drive.

“This is about looking at the vehicle fleet and seeing how they compare. A mid-sized sedan or a mid-sized SUV is usually a good pick,” he said, noting that larger and heavier cars often better protect occupants in severe impacts.

The Used Car Safety Ratings are different from the scores from the Australian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) because they are compiled using results from real-world road crashes – which involve injuries and deaths – while the ANCAP star ratings are based on laboratory crash tests and an assessment of a car's crash-avoidance safety systems.

“We base it in Australia on the real-world evidence,” said Professor Newstead.

“It’s a different concept to ANCAP but we are doing the same thing.”

This year is the 25th time the ratings have been compiled and, for the first time, autonomous emergency braking must be fitted to a used car to qualify for the Monash five-star safety rating.

The results do not include cars with a current ANCAP rating, because that information is already readily available online – and because most vehicles introduced in the past six years or so have five-star scores.

The study has previously been criticised because the results could be skewed by the number of examples sold of a particular model – or two seemingly identical cars have different safety results under the Monash method.

Professor Newstead says these anomalies occur because there can be unseen changes that affect a car's performance in a crash.

“Generally you see improvement from one model to the next. Occasionally a model series variant will get worse than the one before. And you have to find out why that happens. There is a lot of quality checking,” he said.

“People will ask, and sometimes you don’t know why. It might be a structural change under the surface.

“Taking weight out of a car can compromise safety. That has happened with the Suzuki Swift.”

Professor Newstead said subtle changes during a model series – from the Holden Commodore ute from the VU to the VY – can highlight previously unseen changes.

“In that car, it's the adoption of airbags – the vast majority of utes didn't have the side airbag fitted – and improvements to the structure. The body structure was improved over time with a front-wheel deflector and a stronger B-pillar (roof pillar).

Professor Newstead told Drive there are many things to monitor on a yearly basis and trends sometimes take time to emerge, even on top sellers such as the Toyota Camry.

“Every vehicle is re-rated every year, relative to every other vehicle in the fleet. That is important. It allows you to see how we have improved through the years of manufacture, and the changes in technology.

“Sometimes car companies will sneak out (install) a bit of safety technology ... but not fit it to all models. They will fit it in one or two models, and leave it out of everything else.”

Funding for the used-car safety ratings comes from governments and state motoring bodies.

Professor Newstead, who has worked at MUARC for 30 years, said he heads a five-person team on the annual project.

Looking at the top-rated cars, he told Drive the best performing brands are usually from Japan and Europe.

“The cars doing the best all-round are often the better-quality small cars. Medium cars perform well but we have less and less of them (due to the new-car buyer shift from sedans to SUVs.”

Four cars from Audi were given the top rating, followed by Toyota and Subaru each with two, among eight brands who performed best in the 2022 rankings.

However, there are winners and losers in almost every used-car category, from city hatchbacks to large SUVs.

“These ratings are particularly important for people shopping in the secondhand market for older vehicles. There are some disastrous decisions they can make. We target these to young people,” Professor Newstead said.

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