Car Safety Features
From ABS to Airbags
When it comes to safety it's important to understand that not all cars are the same – new cars will generally have more safety features and be more resilient in a crash than earlier models whilst some car manufacturers may aim to exceed the minimum demands of the law by more than others.
Car safety features fall into two categories and it's important to consider both:
Primary Safety This describes those features that are designed to help you avoid a crash. Brakes and lights are obvious examples.
Secondary Safety These are the features you hope you'll never need and which come into play to help reduce the effects of a crash. Seatbelts and airbags are the most obvious examples.
General Checks
The day– to– day mechanics – brakes, steering, lights, tyres – need to be in good working order of course but there are other important aspects of primary safety that you should check when choosing a new car. Take a test drive and make sure:
- you can adjust the seat and steering so you are comfortable to drive
- you can reach the controls
- you can see the dashboard clearly
- you can see all round the car – do the windscreen pillars or head restraints block your view behind?
- the lights give you a clear view of the road ahead
- the car feels right and you feel in control
MOT An MOT only shows that the car was in working order on the day of the test. If it's got less than three months to run, ask the seller to arrange a new one.
Electronic Safety Systems
Anti–lock Braking System (ABS) Helps you keep control of the car in an emergency and has been a standard feature of all new cars since 2004. ABS helps you to maintain steering control under emergency braking.
Electronic Brake Assist Some drivers back off the brake pedal once they feel the ABS kick in, reducing its effectiveness in an emergency. To get round this, electronic brake assist senses how firmly you brake and keeps applying the brake to help the ABS work.
Electronic Stability Control (ESC) Studies have now shown that cars fitted with ESC are significantly less likely to be involved in accidents. ESC detects differences between a car's course and the driver's intended course and can sense when a driver's about to lose control. By automatically and selectively applying the brakes to individual wheels, Electronic Stability Control helps the driver maintain control and steer safely.
Tyre pressure monitoring Most punctures are slow punctures. Often in a modern car you may not notice it, but it will affect the brakes in an emergency. To get round this, some car manufacturers are now offering tyre pressure monitoring to warn you if a tyre starts to go down. Tyre pressure monitoring is essential where runflat tyres are fitted.
Crash Protection
Airbags The more the better. Six is common now: three each for the driver and front seat passenger (one at the front, one at the side and one to protect your head). We're now seeing the introduction of knee protecting airbags and bags for rear seat passengers too. Expect even more in the future.
It could be fatal for the child and is now illegal to use a rear facing child seat on a passenger seat equipped with an active frontal airbag. You'll need to look at cars that don't have a front– passenger airbag or at least have a switch to disable it.
Seatbelts We've had these for over 30 years but there are a number of new features worth looking out for:
- pre–tensioners and grabbers take up slack in the seatbelt a split second after the crash starts
- load limiters stop the seatbelt pulling too hard on your chest
- centre rear seatbelts – a full lap and diagonal belt protects better than a simple lap belt
Crash Tests
There is much more to good crash safety than simply fitting airbags. The timing and speed of airbag deployment is critical as is the way in which the car's structure deforms to absorb the impact forces.
The only reliable way to assess a car's 'crashworthiness' (how well it will protect occupants in a crash) is to run a full scale crash test. This is where the European New Car Assessment Programme (EuroNCAP) comes in. Their crash tests will tell you:
- how the car reacts in a frontal and side impact crash
- whether the passenger compartment acts as a safety cage or crumples and caves in
- whether the airbags and seatbelts can protect people of different shapes and sizes
- if there is sufficient padding in areas you're likely to come into contact with in a crash
Search and compare crash test results
The AA helped to launch Euro NCAP in 1997 and since then they've tested more than 200 models.
Cars get one to five stars to show how well they can protect you. At the start, the average score was less than two stars and the car manufacturers thought the tests were too severe. Now many achieve five stars and the average is four.