The latest update to the Used Car Safety Ratings guide reinforces the need for more information to be provided to buyers at the point of sale. The guide is the result of in-depth analysis by the Monash University Accident Research Centre (MUARC) of real-world crash data collected in both New Zealand and Australia.
Updated each year, the guide now provides safety ratings on 279 used vehicles built between 1982 and 2015 listing 106 of them as good or excellent. A further 113 are categorised as poor or very poor and 60 are considered marginal.
Ahead of the general election on 23 September, the AA is calling for vehicle safety information to be provided at the point of sale, similar to fuel economy information already available.
AA Motoring Services General Manager Stella Stocks says New Zealand has a huge second hand car market with 160,000 imports crossing the border in 2016, compared with about 140,000 new car sales. While new cars are safer than they have ever been, the average age of used imports is increasing meaning the gap between safety of used and new cars is widening.
Motorists, especially people buying cars for the first time, can easily be overwhelmed by what is available and can find it difficult to work out which factors they should consider most. Ministry of Transport data shows younger drivers are seven times more likely to crash than experienced drivers. While younger drivers have more modest budgets, they’re the ones in need of the best protection.
The guide shows which cars are the safest across all categories, which is why we want the information available at the point of sale. It enables buyers to consider safety performance of one vehicle against another before they get behind the wheel.
The work conducted by MUARC show that a driver of the worst-rated vehicle is more than 10 times as likely to be killed or seriously injured in the same crash as a driver in the best-rated vehicle. The research also show the average risk of death or serious injury for the driver in a 2015 car is half that of someone behind the wheel in a 1996 car.
If you’re potential new car isn’t listed, don’t be alarmed. Enough crash data is required on each vehicle in the guide to ensure the rating is robust. If a particular model hasn’t been involved in many crashes, then there’s not enough data to consider. In those cases, motorists should review a vehicle’s rating as a new car.
Used Car Safety Ratings can be found here.