You are buying your first car since junior was born and for once in your life, you’re more concerned about the location and quality of the airbags than the number of horses under the hood. With safety now ruling the day over style and speed, our car enthusiasts suggested some features you’ll love.
Erik Pham
Three Point Seatbelts and Active Head Restraints
Three-point seatbelts
I believe seatbelts will always be the main safety feature even in the far future. If you want to survive and have minimal injuries during a car accident then a three-point seatbelt is the best option. Three-point seatbelts offer reliable stability and they will prevent you from jumping out of the car when an accident occurs.
Make sure to choose stable and secure seatbelts as well. Some three-point seatbelts may not be sturdy enough for an accident and the best way to tell if the seatbelt is good enough is how hard it is to move around when you adjust it to the lowest possible setting.
Active head restraints
Aside from seatbelts, active and durable head restraints are one of your best chances of surviving a car crash. The support it offers your head and neck helps mitigate injuries that would otherwise break your neck or cause severe damage to the head. Although it isn’t hightail advertised, make sure that the car you choose has a strong but flexible head restraint.
An inflexible but durable head restraint may do more harm than good and it could be the cause of your injury instead of protecting you from it. Thanks for reading my answers. I hope this information is helpful for your readers and that they can choose the safest car they can find with their budget.
Look for These Three Options
The most important is the blind spot detection mirrors. These have saved me from many an accident. Followed by the park assist sensors. These sensors provide audible sounds when you are close to hitting an object. Lastly – and this is more old-fashioned, but the car should have a hand brake that I can crank up with my hand. This is a must especially when the car is parked on a steep hill.
Mogale Modisane
Matthew Roberts
Always Check the Seatbelt
Inspect the three-point seatbelts in every position in the car for proper functioning. Examine the webbing for any cuts or frays that could compromise its effectiveness. Check for abnormalities in the buckle and retraction as well.
Ascertain that the seat belts provide the best fit and adjustments for people of all ages while also providing the highest level of security possible. If the seat belts have a considerable number of flaws, consider calling off the purchase of that car to ensure your and your passengers’ safety.
Crash Test Scores
My #1 recommendation is to check how the cars you’re interested in performed in crash tests. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Consumer Reports, and some other organizations conduct annual crash tests to gauge this. You can look up the results online to ensure that you’re buying a vehicle in which you’ll be protected should the worst-case scenario occur.
Besides crash test performance, look for a car with features like antilock brakes, an electronic stability control system, and backup cameras. Out of the three of these, I’d say antilock brakes are the must-have feature. They give you more control when you have to brake suddenly and can prevent an accident from occurring. Electronic stability control is becoming more standard, as are backup cameras – your old car may not have had them, but it’s easy to find a new one that will.
New safety features are being rolled out for cars every year, so you should also keep up with developments and see what each car you’re looking at has to offer.
Daivat Dholakia
Riley Beam
Some Things to Consider When Buying an Older Car
The number of airbags
Airbags are the first thing you need to check for. This doesn’t just include frontal airbags, but also side-impact, knee, and curtain airbags too.
ABS (anti-lock braking system)
Which as the name suggests, is a system that prevents your brakes from locking and helps you regain control of your car when you brake too hard or are prone to skidding.
Cornering traction control
Again, this helps retain stability and keeps you from skidding when cornering at high speeds.
Reinforced B-pillar
A reinforced B-pillar is extremely efficient at dissipating the impact of a side crash, keeping the driver and occupants safe.
Collision avoidance systems
Prevention is better than cure and so a collision avoidance system is paramount for drivers young and old. These include everything from forward-collision warnings, lane-keep assists, pedestrian warnings, etc.
You also want to check the Euro NCAP rating of the car, which covers everything from adult and child protection to pedestrian protection along with safety assist. Cars with 4- and 5-star ratings are what you need to be looking at.
This is a crowdsourced article. Contributors' statements do not necessarily reflect the opinion of this website, other people, businesses, or other contributors.