How to find a good, safe used car

Mention safety to most used-car buyers and the first thought to enter their head will be secondary safety – how well the car protects you and folds up around you when a crash is unavoidable.

But buyers are well advised to consider also how well a used car can avoid a crash in the first place. These days, that means not only big brakes and excellent roadholding, it also means driver-assist technology such as autonomous emergency braking (AEB).

And if you care for your fellow road users, AEB with pedestrian detection and maybe rear cross-traffic alert and blind spot monitoring are features worth having in your used-car purchase.

That sort of technology is still fairly rare, but basic (low-speed) AEB is beginning to trickle into the used-car marketplace in vehicles like the Mazda6, which can be found with this safety feature for prices around the $20,000 mark or lower for a 2016 model, according to RedBook.

The Mazda is also rated at five-star safe by ANCAP (Australasian New Car Assessment Program), based on the safety authority's 2012 testing protocol.

Recent models of the Mazda6 are safer still, in ANCAP's view. There's a full suite of driver-assist technology and the mid-size Mazda sedan and wagon continues to meet the necessary standard for five-star crash safety too. You'll pay more for the 2018 and 2019 models of course.

But the point is this: the Mazda is emblematic of safety technology in cars these days. And if you have up to $20,000 you can lay hands on a reliable, well-equipped used car that's safe enough to satisfy the most insecure driver. You don't need to buy a Volvo 240 from the late 1980s to feel safe.

In fact, most modern passenger cars and even some cars rated at four stars by ANCAP, stand up pretty well in a crash. They only struggle to achieve five stars because they lack the aforementioned driver-assist technology ANCAP demands in its current testing protocol.

Aussie cars built between 2010 and 2018 (Falcon and Commodore) are rated at five stars by ANCAP under earlier testing procedures. If you have a yen to own a bit of Australian automotive history, these cars in six-cylinder variants are quite affordable now, and they will look after you properly in a crash – as numerous P-platers and car jackers can testify.

If safety is important – and it typically is for family buyers – get the car that delivers more of everything up to the maximum amount your budget can stretch.

That may mean something recent from Europe. BMW or Mercedes-Benz from within the last five years will feature plenty of crumple-ability and torsionally rigid platforms with computer-guided load paths in the structure. On top of that they'll also stand a very good chance of avoiding a crash in the first place.

Among other (more affordable) cars from Europe to ace ANCAP, Renaults have been top performers in NCAP testing for literally decades. And of course Volvos from any era are likely to be more affordable than the German rivals and still deliver premium crash safety.

ANCAP is a solid starting point for deciding which car to buy. Limit your purchasing criteria to vehicles that have been rated five stars for crash safety by ANCAP.

Be advised though, ANCAP's testing protocol is convoluted and rewards winky-blinky lights telling you to do up your seatbelt before setting off – which any safety-conscious driver would do anyway.

Unfortunately, a lot of cars that are structurally safe in an impact are only rated at four stars because they lack all the driver-assist technology – including the seat-belt reminders!

For the sake of simplicity, however, and no matter how unfair it may seem, stick with the five-star cars. If you love a challenge, however, it's hard conducting the research to hive off the 'safety-assist technology' points from the ANCAP score to work out whether a car will actually save you in a crash, but it's not impossible. ANCAP does actually break down its scores by category.

The reason you may want to ensure your new purchase will absorb impacts properly can best be summed up in the viral video from January 2019 showing an aged Hyundai Santa Fe hitting a fallen sign on the Bulla Road exit from Melbourne's Tullamarine Freeway.

After the Hyundai struck the sign, the sign fell on the car and the roof collapsed under the four-tonne weight. As testament to the Santa Fe's robust design, the driver of the car walked away with barely a scratch.

All the safety-assist technology in the world won't save you from an unexpected incident like that.

When contemplating the safety of a prospective purchase, compare safety specifications. If you're a wiz with a spreadsheet, that's a good way to compare cars for their safety features.

Copy and paste the safety specifications out of each advertisement for vehicles listed at carsales into a spreadsheet, filter out anything not related to safety and then sort the data in columns. Whichever vehicle has the longest list of features is the one you should look at closely.

Don't forget that safety features aren't just airbags and stability control. High-power headlights are a safety feature, so is adaptive cruise control – the fundament of autonomous emergency braking. A good climate control system will keep you from becoming fatigued on long drives, as will low levels of road noise in the cabin.

Finally, you'll often hear that high-performance cars are 'unsafe', the reasoning being that inexperienced drivers come unstuck at 'terminal velocities driving cars like these.

But don't be put off by that. Often, the muscular, V8-engined performance sedan comes with the same basic safety kit as the impoverished fleet queen with the V6. The V8 will be as crash-safe as the V6, it will likely handle and hold the road better, and the added performance can help get you out of trouble faster when overtaking, for instance.

Being better equipped and more expensive overall, the performance variant is likely to come with more safety equipment as standard.

Of course, the safest car is typically one driven by a safe driver.