Safety is paramount with our Car of the Year awards and for car buyers, consistently one of the highest priorities for purchasing a vehicle, along with price and size. Airbags and ABS are great but very much taken for granted in the 21st century; in the 2020s, it’s things like crash mitigation and elimination, plus a suite of safety systems that are required to not just pass the tests, but enable safer vehicles for owners.
It’s the advancements of these aspects that are arguably the biggest contributor to road safety and reducing crashes and road fatalities, therefore to qualify for the overall Car of the Year prize, vehicles must carry a five-star ANCAP crash rating… meaning a few good cars do indeed cars slip through the system here and there with four-star (or less) ratings.
ANCAP is the Australasian New Car Assessment Program and is Australia and New Zealand's independent voice on vehicle safety. ANCAP carries out crash tests cars and performance assessments on safety features and technologies – or sources the data from its close alignment with the European New Car Assessment Program (Euro NCAP) - then publishes a simple star rating to indicate relative safety performance, along with a numerical score.
The AA Safest cars for 2024 are indeed the same safest cars for 2023, with no new cars able to usurp the finalists, and the Tesla Model Y remaining in the top spot with its overall score of 91.50.
Features include dual frontal, side chest-protecting and side head-protecting (curtain) airbag, a centre airbag for added protection to front seat occupants in side impact crashes, autonomous emergency braking (Car-to-Car, Vulnerable Road User, Junction Assist and Backover), a lane support system with lane keep assist (LKA), lane departure warning (LDW) and emergency lane keeping (ELK), and an advanced speed assistance system (SAS).
AA DRIVEN CAR OF THE YEAR CLASS WINNERS FOR 2024
City SUV
Family SUV
Large SUV
Passenger
Hybrid/EV
Luxury
Sports/Performance
Lifestyle/Adventure
People's Choice
And the overall winner is...!