Every brand's safest car, and how cheaply you can buy them

As roads get busier and more congested than ever, vehicle safety is becoming increasingly important for car buyers. Thankfully, manufacturers continue to innovate and strive for the highest safety standards in an effort to get the best results in stringent new car safety tests.

Euro NCAP (European New Car Assessment Programme) is the independent non-profit organisation that assesses the safety of all new cars. It rates vehicles after carrying out head-on, side impact and vulnerable road user (pedestrian and cyclist) simulated crash tests.

Following these tests, Euro NCAP gives a star rating (out of five) for the overall safety of each car. It also gives a more detailed score for how each vehicle performed for adult protection, child protection, vulnerable road user protection and safety assistance protection. 

Every two years, Euro NCAP updates its tests to improve safety and technology standards.

The most recent update was in 2020, when updates included a new head-on collision to simulate a crash with another car, a new side impact (with stronger mass) on the passenger side to assess passenger movement and injury, as well as new scenarios to test automatic emergency braking (AEB) systems. This included testing the AEB systems against other vehicles. At present, the next update is due to take place later in 2023.

Here, we list every brand's safest car tested by Euro NCAP in 2020, 2021 and 2022. In each case, you can see how the car performed, follow the link to read more about the model in our full review, then see how much you can save on one when you search the free What Car? New Car Buying service.