Car safety problems persist

4 January 2007

New cars are much safer than they used to be, but Which? is still finding basic safety problems with many models.

The consumer organisation has been testing cars since 1983 when the situation was dire – no standard rear seat belts, few head restraints, no airbags, and complete carelessness in many vital areas of safety design.

In its latest safety tests, Which? found that several cars1 have seat-belt buckles that can be accidentally released by flailing arms, leaving occupants more vulnerable to injury or even being thrown from the car in a crash. The 2006 Volvo S80 has poor belt buckle design in both front and rear seats.2

Which? has called on Chrysler, Honda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru and Volvo to change the buckle design on the affected models, but so far only Volvo has agreed to investigate further.

Upper leg damage accounts for a significant proportion of serious injuries in front-on crashes. Disappointingly, all cars Which? recently tested3 had insufficient protection in this area, apart from the Ford S-Max and Volvo S80.

Which? thinks Isofix child-seat fittings4 are a good thing, but their design and instructions can be dangerously confusing. The Nissan X-Trail and the Skoda Roomster were both criticised for these reasons.

The pressure Which? has put on car manufacturers to increase safety over the last 24 years has paid off. The Peugeot 205 GL gained a shocking safety rating of just three points5 in 1984, but today’s Peugeot 207 supermini scores a much improved 10 points. Similarly, the Vauxhall Nova scored just four points in 1983, whereas the Vauxhall’s current supermini, the Corsa, achieves 9.5 points.

Of the 687 cars Which? has tested over the years, it rates the 2003 Audi A8 as the safest with a peerless 14 points. Joint second are the 2004 Volvo S40 and 2003 Lexus LS 430 both with an impressive 13.5 points.

Five cars prop up the bottom of the post-1983 safety table with a frighteningly low 3 points: the 1985 Austin Mini, 1986 Citroen 2CV, 1987 Citroen AX, 1984 Yugo 45 and 1984 Peugeot 205. There are still a fair number of these cars being driven today.

Neil Fowler, editor, Which?, said:
“Spurred on by the lack of attention to car safety in the early 1980s, we started our groundbreaking safety rating system in 1983.

“Modern cars measure up well against their ancestors, but there’s no room for complacency where safety’s concerned. We’re still finding basic safety problems with many new models and we’ll continue to lobby car manufacturers for improvement.”
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1 Nissan X-Trail (2.2 diesel), Nissan Note (1.4), Seat Leon (1.6), Honda Civic (1.8), Subaru Legacy Tourer (2.0), Mitsubishi Grandis (2.4), Volvo S80 (2.4 diesel) and Chrysler 300C (3.0 diesel).
2 Volvo S80 lost two safety points due to poor front and rear seat-belt buckle design.
3 Hyundai Santa Fe (2.2 diesel), Nissan X-Trail (2.2 diesel), VW Eos (2.0), Skoda Roomster (1.4), Suzuki SX4 (1.6), Fiat Sedici (1.6), Seat Leon (1.6), Peugeot 207 (1.4) Vauxhall Corsa (1.2), Mitsubishi Grandis (2.4) and Chrysler 300C (3.0 diesel), Ford S-Max (2.0) and Volvo S80 (2.4 diesel).
4 Isofix is a secure fitting method for child car seats using metal catches welded to the car body.
Which? assesses more than 50 critical safety areas to work out how well the car will fare in a wide variety of crashes. There is no upper limit on scores and all ratings can be directly compared, regardless of size or class of car. Which? recommends a score of 10 points or higher, even for superminis.

Ten Best Cars for Safety (since 1983) Ten Worst Cars for Safety (since 1983)

Audi A8 4.2 Quattro (2003) 14 points (Best)	Hyundai Pony 1.2L (1983) 3.5
Volvo S40 2.4i (2004) 13.5	Fiat Panda 900 Super (1984) 3.5
Lexus LS 430 (2003) 13.5	Suzuki Alto GL (1987) 3.5
Volvo S80 (1998) 13	Daihatsu Domino (1987) 3.5
Lexus GS 300 SE (2005) 13	Yugo 55A (1987) 3.5
Jaguar XJ8 (2003) 13	AustinMiniCity (1985) 3
Fiat Croma Multijet 150 diesel (2005) 13	Citroen AX 11 RE (1987) 3
Volvo S60 2.0T (2004) 12.5	Yugo 45 (1984) 3
Renault Avantime 3.0 V6 Sport (2002) 12.5	Peugeot 205 GL (1984) 3
Jaguar S-type 3.0 V6 (2004) 12.5	Citroen 2CV6 (1986) 3 points (Worst)

Models in italics are no longer available new. Photos are available of all models.

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