When buying a car, most people prioritize things like appearance, mileage, reliability, and fuel economy. However, they forget one important factor: safety. Considering 41,000 people died in car crashes in 2023, you should perform safety inspections before buying a car.
Government Evaluations of Vehicle Safety Performance
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) conducts crash tests annually on released vehicles. It assigns them ratings under its Five-Star Safety Rating system to evaluate their safety levels. A rating of five indicates the highest level of safety, and one represents the lowest rating available. You can access its safety ratings online or by checking the window stickers of cars on sale.
This agency assesses the safety of vehicles in various types of crashes. These include frontal impacts, side collisions with barriers and poles, and rollover incidents. It also highlights the presence of crash prevention technologies such as:
- Alert for front-end collisions.
- Alert for drifting out of lane
- Dynamic brake support, a feature that helps drivers with braking to prevent accidents
A vehicle with a five-star rating from the NHTSA ticks all the boxes for safety and, thus, is an ideal option. A four-star rating means very good but has slightly lower safety in certain tests. Meanwhile, three stars mean the vehicle has average safety performance and meets minimum standards. You shouldn’t purchase vehicles with a rating of less than three stars because they have a higher risk of injury in crashes.
Ratings for Crash Tests in the Insurance Industry
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) safety ratings use a different approach for evaluating vehicles compared to the star rating system used by NHTSA. It assesses crash test outcomes as either good, acceptable, marginal, or poor. The tests they carry out include:
- Frontal overlap crash tests: The organization carries out two types of frontal overlap crash tests: moderate overlap and small overlap. In the moderate overlap test, a vehicle runs at 40 mph into a barrier covering 40 % of the car’s width and is placed off-center towards the driver’s side. On the other hand, the small overlap test has a barrier covering 25 % of the vehicle’s width.
- Roof strength test: In a roof strength test, a metal plate is pressed into the roof of a vehicle to measure the force required to crush it. This test is done to measure the resilience of a vehicle in the event of a rollover.
- Head restraint and seat tests: According to the IIHS, neck strains are a serious issue in car accidents in the United States. Therefore, testing these components helps gauge the level of protection a car provides against injuries such as whiplash during collisions. Tests involve securing the vehicle’s seats onto a steel sled. This is then moved to mimic the rapid acceleration and deceleration that happens in an accident.
When it comes to choosing a car based on insurance safety standards, you should always try to get a car with the highest safety ratings in order to pay less for insurance and be as safe as possible. Look for a “Top Safety Pick” or a “Top Safety Pick+” rating. These vehicles have high crash-worthiness and crash-prevention systems.
Electronic Stability Control
According to NHTSA, electronic stability control helped to save about 1,949 lives yearly. Therefore, you want a car that comes equipped with this safety feature. Electronic stability control (ESC) is a technology that uses sensors to monitor wheel speed, steering angle, and the sideways motion of a vehicle. It then makes adjustments to the brakes and engine power to help the vehicle stay on the path intended by the driver. This makes the vehicle easier to control in an emergency.
Rollover Resistance
Rollover resistance measures a vehicle’s tendency to tip and roll over based on its top-heaviness, also called the Static Stability Factor. This test determines whether or not a particular vehicle is likely to tip and roll after making a severe driving maneuver.
To enable consumers to know which vehicles are more likely to roll over than others, the NHTSA has come up with a rating system called the Rollover Resistance Rating (RRR). The rating was previously based on the vehicle’s static stability factor (SSF). The SSF is determined by measuring the width and center of gravity of a vehicle.
The problem with this rating is that it is based on the SSF, which is determined when the vehicle is standing still and not in a dynamic road test. Thus, the rating fails to capture differences in vehicles’ suspensions and tires and the absence or presence of a stability control system that can make a huge difference. You can obtain rollover ratings for vehicles from the NHTSA website.
Antilock Brake Systems (ABS)
Antilock brake systems (ABS) prevent the front tires from skidding and losing traction during sudden braking. This technology has many different names. It depends on the automaker, which can be quite confusing for car buyers. When buying a car, you should check to see if it has automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection. You should also check the IIHS rating to see how effective the feature is.
Driver Attention Monitor
You should also check to see if a vehicle has a driver attention monitor system that uses intelligent driver-facing cameras. This system constantly checks the driver’s attention and distraction or drowsiness levels. Some of these systems come with sensors that monitor the car’s motion to determine the driver’s attentiveness. Most of these systems issue an alarm to the driver to either take a break or avoid dangerous driving habits such as texting behind the wheel.
Your Safety Begins Before You Even Get Into Your Car
Buying a car that has high safety ratings should be your top priority. Before settling for a vehicle, you should ensure it meets all the safety standards. This is an easy way to ensure your new car is reliable and ready to roll out on the road, no matter how many miles you drive.
