Tips On Buying a Safer Car
By Rochelle Caviness
How to buy a safer car…
Do your research! Every year, cars, trucks and vans are beaten, battered and crashed tested in order to evaluate their overall safety. Read the reports generated by those studies!
Be sure to understand what saftey features that come standard with a given vehicle. Some safety features to consider are:
- Driver, passenger and side air bags
- 2 or 4-wheel ABS (anti-lock) brakes, traction control or all-wheel drive
- Head injury protections and rear head restraints
- Adjustable shoulder belts and center seat shoulder belts
- Daytime running lights
- Additional front and side impact protection
- An automatically dimming review mirror
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) conducts a wide range of tests on new cars to determine their crashworthiness and general safety. In addition to the NHTSA, many other organizations also perform crash and safety tests on passenger vehicles.
- Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has put their 'Crashworthiness' evaluations online, complete with graphic pictures of some of the test results. Details offered include not only damaged sustained by the cars themselves, during the crash tests, but also the car's ratings in regard to projected human injuries from various crash scenarios - for each specific make and model.
- The Australian New Car Assessment Program also conducts crashworthiness tests and they have posted a wealth on information online including information on the tests they conducted on air bags, as well as ratings for used cars.
- The European New Car Assessment Programme has also posted, online, data from the crash tests they performed on new cars. The Euro NCAP program has also conducted a range of tests to determine how much protection is offered to children, by the various forms of child safety equipment.
New Cars
For most families, their primary safety concerns are centered upon their children. Keeping your children safe, while in a car, is not only a matter of how the car will perform in a crash, but how various safety features will withstand any potential impact and what equipment the new car should have.
A few "child passenger safety" questions to ask yourself when selecting a new car:
- Are there enough seatbelts in the car for all potential passengers?
- Are the lap and seat belts adjustable, so that they will safety accommodate people of different heights?
- Can the seat belts be 'locked', to prevent children from accidentally opening them?
- Can the inside back door latches and windows be fixed so that a child cannot open them?
- Does the vehicle come with emergency truck release lock that will allow the trunk to be opened from inside?
- Is there a built-in car seat? If not, how well will the car handle one?
Used Cars
When buying a used car for your family, your first step should be to review the crashworthiness and safety information for the particular make and model that you are considering buying. Beyond that, used cars do have added risks:
- There are many companies, such as Carfax and VHR, which for a fee will provide you with a complete vehicle history report on the car you are planning to buy.
- Used cars need to be inspected by a certified mechanic, for roadworthiness. While the used car may be clean and appear to be in working condition, there may be an underlying mechanical or structural problem that could present a safety hazard.
- Check the seat belts careful to ensure that they are properly anchored and that they work properly.
- If there is a previously installed car seat, recheck the installation.
- A used car, especially an older model, may not have safety equipment such as air bags and even seat belts. When considering a used car, make sure that it meets all your safety needs or that it can be retrofitted to meet currant standards.
New or used, be sure to ask yourself three key questions
- How well will the vehicle protect the passengers in a crash?
- Does the car have any safety features that will help you avoid a crash, such as ABS brakes?
- What safety features, such as air bags, does the car come with?
The information provided on this site is for informational purposes only.
Always consult your doctor for medical advice.
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