The safest used cars in Australia, according to real crash data

The Monash University Accident Research Centre has released its Used Car Safety Ratings for 2023, ranking 518 models based on their performance in real-world crashes over a 34-year period.

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The annual ratings are based on the MUARC's statistical analysis of crash data across 9 million different vehicles and 2.5 million injured road users in Australia and New Zealand between 1987 and 2021. 

This year, the 2023 ratings also include a new category called "overall safety", which indicates the average relative risk of of being killed or seriously injured either in or by the vehicle being rated. This takes into account all people involved in a crash, from the driver and passengers inside the car, to vulnerable road users outside the car and occupants of other vehicles involved in the crash.

Cars were also assessed across three other categories: driver safety, other road user safety and crash avoidance (which rates the car's ability to avoid crashes with its active safety technology).

Out of the 518 models assessed, 106 received a five-star rating for the 'overall safety' category, while 87 received 'safer pick' status, meaning they scored five stars for overall safety and driver safety, and at least three stars for other road user safety and crash avoidance.

Of those, just 20 models received five stars across all four categories. Of those, the most represented car brands were Toyota, with four five-star models, and Mazda, which had five models scoring top marks across the board.

Unsurprisingly, the safest cars tended to be vehicles from more recent model years, with only a handful of exceptions, including the 2008-2015 Audi A4, the 2005-2013 Range Rover Sport and the 2009-2016 Mercedes-Benz E-Class.

On average, the MUARC data showed that a vehicle manufactured in 2021 "reduces the risk of road users being killed or seriously injured by 33 per cent compared to a vehicle manufactured in 2001". 

Importantly, some vehicles are absent from the ratings, because the report excludes vehicles manufactured before 2000, and any vehicles from model-years that are still currently still available to buy new (the latter point only applied to two models in 2023).

The analysis also requires a vehicle to have been involved in at least 500 real-world crashes to meet "accuracy and confidence criteria".

"This is why it usually takes five years for new models to appear in our ratings; sometimes more if the model is less popular in Australia and NZ," a MUARC spokesperson explained.

"It is because of this criteria that luxury brands like Lamborghini don't currently appear in the ratings. The volume of sales of some luxury brands is so low in Australia, that by the time it comes to the volume of those vehicles in the crash data, they don't meet the criteria for inclusion. There are also some non-luxury vehicles which aren't in the ratings, again because the volume is too low."

Finally, utes were also assessed, but no model received 'safer pick' status and very few managed to attain an "overall safety" score of more than three stars.

The top-performing utes were the 2015-2021 Ford Ranger, 2015-2021 Mazda BT-50 and 2012-2020 Holden Colorado, all of which were able to attain four stars for overall safety.

With the above criteria in mind, here are the 20 used cars that received five stars across every category for 2023, in alphabetical order, with specific model-year (MY) outlined in brackets: