NCAP Safety Ratings: Top Cars

How safe is your car? The Euro NCAP (New Car Assessment Programme) safety ratings assess the safety of six types of car model. For more general information on the NCAP safety ratings, check out our article "NCAP Safety Ratings Explained".

Pedestrian Safety

Pedestrian safety testing and rating changed in 2002 to a more rigorous system. Please note that this article uses both pedestrian ratings from both before and after 2002.

Small Cars

• For adult safety, the car models with the best safety ratings were the BMW 1-series (2004), the Citröen C4 (2004), the Ford Focus (2004), the Mercedes-Benz A-class (2005), the Vauxhall Astra (2004), the Renault Mégane (2003), the Renault Mégane CC (2004) and the Volkswagen Golf (2004). These models scored the maximum five stars for adult safety.

• For child safety, the car models with the best safety ratings were the Chevrolet Aveo (2006), the Citröen C4 (2004), the Fiat Stilo (2005), the Ford Focus (2004), the Mercedes-Benz A-class (2005), the Seat Léon (2005) and the Volkswagen Golf (2004). These models scored four out of five for child safety. No model scored the maximum five out of five.

• For pre-2002 pedestrian safety, the car model with the best safety rating was the Honda Civic (2001). This was the only model to score three out of the maximum four stars.

• For post-2002 pedestrian safety, the car models with the best safety ratings were the Chevrolet Aveo (2006), the Citröen C4 (2004), the Seat Léon (2005) and the Volkswagen Golf (2004). These models scored three out of four for pedestrian safety. No model scored the maximum four of four.

• Putting these results together, we can see that the safest small cars appear to be the Citröen C4 (2004) and the Volkswagen Golf (2004). These models rated amongst the best in each category.

Large Cars

• For adult safety, the car models with the best safety ratings were the Alfa Romeo 159 (2005), the BMW 3-series (2005), the Citröen C5 (2004), the Fiat Croma (2005), the Mercedes-Benz C-class (2000/2001), the Peugeot 407 (2004), the Peugeot 407 coupé (2005), the Renault Laguna (2001,2003), the Saab 9-3 (2003), the Saab 9-3 convertible (2004), the Toyota Avensis (2003), the Toyota Prius (2004), the Volkswagen Passat (2005) and the Volvo S40 (2004). These models scored the maximum five stars for adult safety.

• For child safety, the car models with the best safety ratings were the Alfa Romeo 159 (2005), the BMW-3 series (2005), the Fiat Croma (2005), the Mazda 6 (2005), the Peugeot 407 (2004), the Peugeot 407 coupé (2005), the Skoda Octavia (2004), the Volkswagen Passat (2005) and the Volvo S40 (2004). These models scored four out of five for child safety. As with small family cars, no model scored the maximum five stars.

• For pre-2001 pedestrian safety, the car models with the best safety ratings were the Audi A4 (1997), the BMW 3-series (1997), the Citröen C5 (2001), the Ford Mondeo (1997, 2002), the Honda Accord 1.8i LS (1999), the Hyundai Elentra (1999), the Mercedes C-class (1997, 2001), the Mitsubishi Carisma (2001, the Nissan Primera (2001), the Vauxhall Vectra (1997, 2001), the Peugeot 406 (1997, 2001), the Renault Laguna (1997, 2001, 2003), the Rover 600 (1997), the Rover 75 (2000,2001), the Saab 900 (1997), Skoda Octavia (2001), Toyota Avensis (1998), the Volkswagen Passat (1997, 2001), the Volvo S40 (1997) and the Volvo S60 (2001).

• For post-2002 pedestrian safety, the car models with the best safety ratings were the Honda Accord (2003), the Peugeot 407 (2004), the Peugeot 407 coupé (2005), the Skoda Octavia (2004), the Toyota Prius (2004), the Volkswagen Passat (2005) and the Volvo S40 (2004). These models scored two out of four for pedestrian safety. No model scored higher.

• From these results, it seems that the safest larger cars appear to be the Peugeot 407 (2004), the Peugeot 407 coupé (2005) and the Volkswagen Passat (2005) and the Volvo S40 (2004), as they scored amongst the highest in all three categories.

These results show that certain car models do better in the Euro NCAP ratings than others, particularly Volkswagen.