Car safety problems persist warns Which?

New cars are much safer than they used to be, but Which? is still finding basic safety problems with many models.

The consumer organisation has been testing cars since 1983 when the situation was dire – no standard rear seat belts, few head restraints, no airbags, and complete carelessness in many vital areas of safety design.

In its latest safety tests, Which? found that several cars have seat-belt buckles that can be accidentally released by flailing arms, leaving occupants more vulnerable to injury or even being thrown from the car in a crash. The 2006 Volvo S80 has poor belt buckle design in both front and rear seats.

Which? has called on Chrysler, Honda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru and Volvo to change the buckle design on the affected models, but so far only Volvo has agreed to investigate further.

Upper leg damage accounts for a significant proportion of serious injuries in front-on crashes. Disappointingly, all cars Which? recently tested had insufficient protection in this area, apart from the Ford S-Max and Volvo S80.

Which? thinks Isofix child-seat fittings are a good thing, but their design and instructions can be dangerously confusing. The Nissan X-Trail and the Skoda Roomster were both criticised for these reasons.

The pressure Which? has put on car manufacturers to increase safety over the last 24 years has paid off. The Peugeot 205 GL gained a shocking safety rating of just three points in 1984, but today’s Peugeot 207 supermini scores a much improved 10 points. Similarly, the Vauxhall Nova scored just four points in 1983, whereas the Vauxhall’s current supermini, the Corsa, achieves 9.5 points.

Of the 687 cars Which? has tested over the years, it rates the 2003 Audi A8 as the safest with a peerless 14 points. Joint second are the 2004 Volvo S40 and 2003 Lexus LS 430 both with an impressive 13.5 points.

Five cars prop up the bottom of the post-1983 safety table with a frighteningly low 3 points: the 1985 Austin Mini, 1986 Citroen 2CV, 1987 Citroen AX, 1984 Yugo 45 and 1984 Peugeot 205. There are still a fair number of these cars being driven today.

Neil Fowler, editor, Which?, said: “Spurred on by the lack of attention to car safety in the early 1980s, we started our groundbreaking safety rating system in 1983.

“Modern cars measure up well against their ancestors, but there’s no room for complacency where safety’s concerned. We’re still finding basic safety problems with many new models and we’ll continue to lobby car manufacturers for improvement.”