Promoted: The science behind car safety

Safety is a key selling point for any car today, and we’ve gone to great lengths to ensure that the 2018 What Car? Safety Award winner really is the class of the field.

Euro NCAP tested 65 new cars in 2017, but we’ve worked with Thatcham Research to go one step further – creating a list of even tougher criteria that helped us whittle the list of five star Euro NCAP-rated vehicles down to a shortlist of just 10 finalists.

Our panel looked at the fine detail of the Euro NCAP scores for any car with a five-star rating, including ratings for adult, child and pedestrian protection.

We also looked beyond crash test performance. Advanced technology that can help prevent accidents from happening in the first place is becoming a ‘must-have’ feature on new car purchases – not only saving lives, but also cutting insurance and repair costs.

That’s why features such as Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) and Lane Keep Assist (LKA) needed to be standard for our finalists to make the grade. Finally, a weighting system was applied, based on price, to ensure that cheaper cars were rewarded for offering better safety.

So, ahead of the unveiling of the 2018 What Car? Safety Award on the 23 January, here are the finalists – and how we chose them:

2018 What Car? Safety Award shortlist

• Honda Civic
• Mercedes-Benz X-Class
• Subaru Impreza
• Subaru XV
• Toyota C-HR
• Vauxhall Insignia
• Volkswagen Arteon
• Volkswagen T-Roc
• Volvo S90/V90
• Volvo XC60