RACV awards Victoria's safest cars

RACV today revealed twelve of Victoria’s safest cars, making it easier for consumers to focus on safety features when in the market for a new car.

Half of the cars start from under $30,000, improving the affordability of new cars for customers who want to help protect themselves, their passengers and the Victorian community. 

The cars announced today as part of RACV’s inaugural Safest Cars awards have state-of-the-art safety features such as autonomous emergency braking, intelligent speed assist and emergency lane-keeping technology.

RACV used Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP)’s crash safety ratings and data to select the safest vehicles in each of the four categories, so the awards are completely independent.

RACV Senior Manager - Transport, Planning and Infrastructure, Peter Kartsidimas, said with the majority of fatal accidents occurring in vehicles over ten years old, RACV is urging consumers to make decisions based on safety features.

“There have been huge advancements in vehicle safety over the years, particularly in the past decade, as more buyers prioritise safety when researching their next new car,” he said.

“Features like autonomous emergency braking, which applies the brakes when the system detects an object such as another car, a cyclist or a pedestrian ahead, are increasingly offered as standard on most new-model passenger cars and SUVs.

“Other systems like lane-keeping aids provide gentle steering assistance to help keep the car in its lane, while driver fatigue systems monitor the state of the driver through cameras and sensors.”

The four award categories were chosen as they broadly represent the types of vehicles people want to buy, with the Toyota Yaris light hatchback taking the honours in the under $30,000 passenger car category.

The Mazda CX-30 was crowned the safest SUV under $35,000, while the Mercedes-Benz CLA was the safest passenger car over $30,000. The Land Rover Defender topped the list of the safest SUV over $35,000.

A selection of the winners is listed below, with the full list of the 12 winners and runners up available here:

• Safest Passenger Car under $30,000: Toyota Yaris (all variants)
• Safest Passenger Car over $30,000: Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class (all variants except AMG CLA35)
• Safest SUV under $35,000: Mazda CX-30 (all variants)
• Safest SUV over $35,000: Land Rover Defender (all current 110 variants)