How a safe car can help you save

Car safety

There were over 1,300 road deaths in Australia in 2025, according to National Road Safety Hub data. Australia is in its deadliest road toll streak in over 70 years, with deaths rising every year since January 2021.

While speed, fatigue, distraction and alcohol and/or drugs are major factors in road deaths, the car itself also plays a significant role. After all, the car still takes damage when you crash, and that’s ultimately what kills or injures most people.

According to ANCAP (Australian New Car Assessment Program), 60% of serious and fatal injuries are due to frontal crashes, with side damage to the car being the next biggest. Depending on the car you choose, how safe it is could literally be the difference between life or death.

That’s why ANCAP releases ongoing  safety ratings  – a star rating system from one to five indicating the level of safety each car model provides.

ANCAP safety ratings

ANCAP has been doing these ratings since 1993 in order to provide consumers with information about how safe their prospective cars are. According to its methodology, cars are compared on structural integrity, passive safety features (like airbags) and safety assist technologies (such as blind spot monitoring).

There’s a major difference between star ratings: a five-star car is much safer than a four-star one, which is also much safer than a three-star car.

ANCAP highly recommends cars that are rated five or four stars. Cars with three stars are not recommended, while one and two-star cars are classified as dangerous. Based on ANCAP data, people in cars rated three stars or lower are twice as likely to suffer serious and fatal injuries than those in cars rated 5-stars.

Safest new cars in Australia

There are a lot of five-star cars out there – you’ll find that most new cars released nowadays meet ANCAP’s five-star criteria. 

ANCAP annually determines the best-performing vehicles by combining weighted scores across four key safety areas:

• Adult Occupant
• Child Occupant
• Vulnerable Road User
• Safety Assist.

The Tesla Model Y delivered ANCAP’s top overall weighted result in 2025, with standout scores across occupant protection and active safety systems.

The table below summarises ANCAP’s top-performing vehicles for 2025.

There are way more five-star cars than just the ones shown above – ANCAP lists 703 in total as of January 2026. It might not be a bad idea to check what your current or future car is rated when it comes to safety.

UCSR – Used Car Safety Ratings

The Used Car Safety Ratings (UCSR) are an initiative funded by Monash University, sourcing data from ANCAP. This data focuses solely on second-hand cars that are at least three years old, and is based on the vehicle’s protection of the driver in the event of a crash, as well as the danger it poses to other road users.

These ratings demonstrate that you don’t have to sacrifice safety for something more affordable. There are plenty of safe  used cars  out there that won’t break the budget.

Safest used cars in Australia

In the 2025 UCSR report, the following cars were awarded a five-star rating:

Safest used small cars

Safest used medium cars

Safest used large cars

The UCSR list also includes five-star ratings for small, medium, and large SUVs, including the Hyundai Tucson (15-20), Honda CR-V (12-23), Toyota RAV4 (13-23), BMW X5 (07-13), and more.

How does the safety rating affect me?

No matter how good of a defensive driver you are, it’s obviously not possible to always prevent accidents from happening, as anything can happen at any time. But a car with a good safety rating can save you more than just money. 

An ANCAP safety rating helps you understand how well a vehicle is likely to protect you and others if something goes wrong on the road. Rather than relying on marketing claims or brand reputation, the rating is based on independent crash testing and assessments of real-world safety technologies.

ANCAP safety ratings impact your driving experience and decisions in several important ways:

• Indicate how well a vehicle protects adults, children, and vulnerable road users in a crash
• Reflect the effectiveness of active safety features that help prevent accidents
• Help reduce the risk of injury and costly repairs
• Can lead to lower insurance premiums
• Influence vehicle resale value and fleet safety compliance
• Provide a trusted, easy way to compare safety when buying a car

Looking at some of ANCAP’s one- and two-star-rated vehicles, a fair few of them were made around the late nineties and early two-thousands, and ANCAP strongly suggests that any driver serious about their safety not get such a car.

This isn’t to say that you’re guaranteed to be in a crash if you get a car with a lower safety rating, but statistically speaking, these cars are both more likely to be involved in a crash and less likely to protect those inside.

1. Savings.com.au’s two cents

Cheap does not always equal safe, nor might it represent good value. While you might be tempted to buy that really cheap old second-hand car, maybe you should consider looking at some slightly more expensive cars that have a higher rating.

A car with a high safety rating isn’t necessarily expensive either. There are plenty of used vehicles with five-star safety ratings that can be bought for under $10,000.

A safe and sturdy car could also save you thousands of dollars in insurance excesses and repairs over the years, not to mention the high personal costs of being involved in a serious accident.  At the end of the day, you can’t put a price on safety. Without it, you could lose a lot more than a few bucks.