The Safest Cars of 2016

Research from What Car and the Thatcham Automotive Research Centre has shown that the Volvo XC90 is Britain’s safest car, with the Honda Jazz and the Toyota Avensis following closely behind. In total, there were 17 cars in the shortlist.

The cars which have been tested for the title of ‘safest car of 2016’ have been evaluated by Euro NCAP and have been awarded their five star rating. In order to ascertain the star rating of a vehicle, NCAP simulate head-on, side on and slightly offset crashes. The tests offer a detailed insight into the safety of the car, including the impact on accident victims, effectiveness of seatbelts and airbags, and the yield of the frame.

This looks at factors including: adult and children occupation protection, pedestrian protection, additional safety innovations and new collision technologies. All of the cars in the shortlist have at least one model with Autonomous Emergency Breaking (AEB).

AEB automatically applies the breaks in a situation where the driver does not break in time. This reduces the occurrence of low speed accidents and helps avoid the extreme effects of higher speed crashes.

While the Volvo XC90 is said to be the safest car that the Euro NCAP have ever tested, the safest cars of previous years also received outstanding results in the NCAP testing. These include: the Mercedes C-Class, the Jeep Cherokee and the Fiat 500.

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