Everyone wants to drive a safe vehicle, that’s a given. When buying a new car, however, many consumers focus firstly on price or fuel economy, or perhaps features and connectivity. There is nothing wrong with that, but there are also ways to ensure that your vehicle is safe on the road. These include checking with various recognized organizations, and having a look at the vehicle’s spec sheet.
There are two American organizations that are charged with evaluating the safety of new vehicles sold today, the IIHS and the NHTSA. These organizations simulate various crashes and evaluate the effectiveness of the passive and active safety systems found in most new vehicles on the road. They then publish these results, allowing consumers to quickly compare one model to the next in a given segment. Therefore, if you are wondering if a given vehicle is safe, have a look at the NHTSA and IIHS websites.
Then, have a look at the vehicle’s spec sheet. Every vehicle will have airbags, but what kind of airbags and how many? There will always be frontal and side cushions, but what about knee and head protection? Some vehicles offer them as standard while their competitors do not. Also, some vehicles feature progressive airbags that deploy based on the force of the impact.
Finally, there are a host of active safety systems offered on new cars today. More often than not, features like automatic braking, active cruise control, forward collision warning, blind spot monitoring, lane keep assist and rear cross traffic alert will be optional, but they can certainly help in preventing accidents before they happen if the driver is distracted or another vehicle makes a dangerous move.
No question, most new vehicles are safe. That said, some are safer than others or at least offer more safety features. It may be worth checking out before committing to a specific vehicle!
Thank you to Morrey Infiniti for their help with this article.