A Beginner’s Guide to Understanding Car Safety Ratings

Safety is among the foremost into consideration when purchasing a automobile. While cars today include many safety features, you might wonder which models offer the best protection? Vehicle safety ratings assist consumers in evaluating a given vehicle's capacity to prevent a crash and safeguard its occupants when a crash occurs.

If you're not all that familiar with safety ratings, this guide below will explain what they mean, how they are calculated, and why you should care when purchasing your next car.

What Are Car Safety Ratings?

Safety ratings are simply a score or rating based on crash tests and safety performance of the vehicle. This provides consumers with an indication of protector for passengers in a crash and a collision avoidance from safety technology.

Important Safety Rating Agencies:

• NHTSA — National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; U.S. government agency that performs crash tests.
• Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) What it is: Independent nonprofit that tests for crashworthiness and safety features.
• European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) — Vehicle safety ratings for Europe
• ANCAP (Australasian New Car Assessment Program) –An Australian/New Zealand safety rating system
• Latin NCAP, Global NCAP, and ASEAN NCAP – Assess vehicles for regions including Latin America, India, and Southeast Asia.

Different organizations conduct their tests slightly differently, but they all involve determining how well a car protects occupants in the event of a crash, as well as how effective it is at avoiding one.

Car Safety Ratings: Why Are They Important?

Automobile accidents can occur at any time and a hugely rated automobile may swing the difference between slight injuries and grave side effects. Here is why safety ratings are important.

✅ Passenger Protection – Cars with higher ratings do a better job of protecting occupants in a wreck.

✅ Accident-avoidance technology is evaluated in many safety tests.

✅ Has Effect on Insurance Premiums – Some vehicles provide less expensive insurance premiums since they are safer.

✅ Higher Resale Value – Cars with favorable safety ratings tend to have better resale value.

✅ Peace of Mind — You can drive with low stress once you know your vehicle adhered to some form of strict safety standards.

Now, here is how these ratings are configured.

How Car Safety Ratings Are Calculated

Organizations have varying testing methods, however the main objective is to measure:

• Crash protection – A car's ability to provide protection for occupants in a crash
• Crash Avoidance & Mitigation – The effectiveness of advanced safety features in helping a vehicle avoid and/or lessen the severity of a collision.

Here is how the big three rating organizations rate cars for safety:

• NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) – 5-Star Overall Safety Ratings
• For its 5-Star Safety Ratings, NHTSA evaluates three primary crash scenarios:

Front Impact: Frontal Crash Test: at 35 mph.

• Side Impact Crash Test: An evaluation of occupant protection from a T-bone collision.
• Rollover Resistance Test: measures the likelihood of a vehicle rolling over in a crash

Ratings: 1-5 stars (5 stars = safest)

Top Safety Pick Ratings, IIHS (Insuranc Institute for Highway Safety)

IIHS examines vehicles in a total of six crashworthiness categories:

• Small overlap - front (driver side)
• Small overlap front (passenger-side)
• Moderate overlap front
• Side impact
• Roof strength
• Head restraint effectiveness

Additional Tests:

• Crash Avoidance & Mitigation: Assesses things such as automatic emergency braking (AEB) and lane departure warning
• Headlight Quality: Rates the visibility provided by the car's headlight system.
• Accompanied by ratings of "Poor," "Marginal," "Acceptable," and "Good"

Highest Award: "Top Safety Pick" and "Top Safety Pick+" for models with advanced safety performance.

The European NCAP (New Car Assessment Programme)

Euro NCAP tests include:

• Frontal Impact
• Side Impact & Pole Impact
• Whiplash Protection
• Pedestrian Safety (assesses how safe a vehicle is for other road users)
• Example — Driver Assistance Systems (lane assistant/emergency braking / adaptive cruise control)
• 🔸 Weather: 0 — 5 stars (5 stars being the safest)

ANCAP = Australasian New Car Assessment Program

Like Euro NCAP, this organization has used crash tests, pedestrian impact assessments, and safety technology assessments to award cars between 0 and 5 stars.

Familiarizing Oneself with Important Safety Features

It's not just a question of how well a car protects you in a crash; its ability to avoid one in the first place is equally important. Some of the basic safety features that are assessed for modern vehicles include:

Crash Prevention — Active Safety Features

• Anti-lock Braking System (ABS) — Limits wheel lock-up during panic braking.
• Electronic Stability Control (ESC) – Assists in maintaining control where traction is poor.
• Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) – Aeb works independently to detect an impending collision and automatically apply brakes.
• Lane Departure Warning & Lane Keeping Assist - Warns drivers when the car drifts from the lane
• Blind Spot Monitoring — Informs drivers of other vehicles in the blind zone.
• Adaptive Cruise Control — Slows or speeds up in accordance with traffic flow.

Crash protection — Passive safety features

• Front, side, curtain, and knee airbags help protect occupants from injury in a collision.
• Seatbelt Pretensioners – These tighten seatbelts in the event of a crash.
• Crumple Zones– Substitute to protect passengers by absorbing energy during impact.
• Good Roof Design – Prevents rollover-deaths from roof collapse.

The more safety features a vehicle has, the higher the overall rating.

Using Safety Ratings When You Buy A Car

Now that you know how the safety ratings work, this is how to use it to your advantage when car shopping:

Research Safety Ratings

• Consult NHTSA's 5-star ratings (for U.S. models)
• Find iiHS Top Safety Pick Awards
• Compare international models against Euro NCAP or ANCAP ratings

Prioritize High Ratings

• Look for a 4 [or] 5-star rated car from NHTSA.
• Find Good or Acceptable IIHS ratings across the board

Advanced Safety Features – Keep your Eye out For

• Think of the vehicles have such features such as AEB, blind spot monitoring, or lane assist.
• Verify the availability of adaptive headlights.

Compare Vehicles of Similar Type

• But safety ratings are size-dependent, so a 5-star compact car isn't as safe as a 5-star SUV.
• Compare similar vehicles to identify the safest selections for each type of vehicle.

Final Thoughts

When purchasing a new-to-you vehicle, it can be helpful to better understand car safety ratings. Research NHTSA, IIHS, and NCAP scores, and look for effective as well as advanced safety features, so you can choose a car that provides you and your passengers with protection.

So, when buying a car, keep this in mind: More safety ratings = More safety = More peace of mind.