ANCAP stands for “Australian New Car Assessment Program”. The safety rating system is designed to inform on the safety of a vehicle. This is for pedestrians and occupants if a crash were to occur. A vehicles technology aimed at avoiding or minimising the effects of an accident are also included in the test.

There are six safety features in a car that are often considered “the most important car safety features”. These are: adequate airbags, seatbelts, a forward collision warning and braking system, a blind spot monitoring system, lane keep assist and an inattentive driving monitor. While some of these might seems modern, vehicles with these features achieve high car safety ratings.

The three types of collision in a crash are:

Vehicle: This is when the vehicle crashes into another object.

Human: The human collision is when the passengers collide with things such as the steering wheel or the head rest.

Internal: Internal collision is a product of a person's internal organs impacting each other or the skeletal frame as a result of the crash.

NCAP is the global safety rating system that ANCAP has stemmed off of. The main difference is that ANCAP is a localised car safety rating system that puts more emphasis on vehicle occupant protection. Alternatively, the EuroNCAP has more stringent conditions for pedestrian protection.

If you’re looking for a car on OnlineAuto and we’ve reviewed it, you’ll be able to find the vehicles ANCAP safety rating as part of it’s review. If the review hasn’t come out yet, you can easily google the ANCAP website and they have a feature that allows you to search all makes/models.

A properly functioning steering wheel is vital to the safety of your vehicle and it is responsible for the important act of steering. An important thing to be aware of is safe hand positioning on your wheel. It is worth doing research of your own, however, many sources suggest that the “9 and 3” position is best. The “9 and 3” refers to those number positions on a clock.

There are two main areas where modern cars have improved tremendously within their safety features, these are:

Structural Integrity: As cars have become more modern, their shells have become far better at withstanding a crash and directing the forces away from passengers.

Safety Assist Technologies: These are the newest of the safety technologies. The features include the likes of blind spot monitoring, autonomous emergency braking, adaptive cruise control and active lane keep assist.

Sometimes referred to as emergency brake assist (EBA), this safety feature is engaged when the vehicle detects a sudden stop and automatically applies the vehicles full brake capacity to the wheels.