Buying a car? Here’s what you need to know about new safety ratings

Most people know about car safety ratings and many take them seriously when choosing a new car.

In Australia and New Zealand, safety ratings are issued by the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP), a non-regulatory, not-for-profit organisation that tests new vehicles and publishes results.

ANCAP has announced significant changes from 2026.

Here’s how the ratings have traditionally been determined, what is changing and what it all means for safety on our roads.

How car safety rating works

A majority of Australians say they wouldn’t buy a car that hasn’t achieved a five-star rating.

Manufacturers know this too. Those stars influence which features companies prioritise and what specifications they supply to different markets.

Yet unless you closely follow the car industry, you may not know much about what is actually tested.

ANCAP assigns vehicles a safety rating from zero to five stars based on a mix of crash tests, assessments of on-board safety features and the safety technologies built into the car.

Its rating system has evolved over time. Under the framework introduced in recent years, vehicles are assessed across four key pillars.

1. Adult occupant protection. This looks at how well the car structure protects the driver and passengers in the most common crashes, assessed using crash-test dummies equipped with sensors. These tests include frontal (head-on) and side impacts, pole crashes, whiplash protection and how easy it is for emergency services to access occupants after a crash.

2. Child occupant protection. This examines how well children are protected in front and side crashes, and how built-in safety features such as seatbelts and restraint systems support them.

3. Vulnerable road user protection. This considers the risk the vehicle poses to pedestrians and cyclists, and includes tests of head and leg impact on the bonnet and bumper, as well as the car’s emergency braking system.

4. Safety assist. This focuses on crash-avoidance technology such as speed-assistance systems, lane support and autonomous emergency braking.

Vehicles receive a score for each pillar as well as an overall star rating.

To reach a given star level, cars must meet minimum thresholds across all pillars. This means the overall rating is limited by the weakest area.

Buyers’ considerations

It’s worth remembering that a safety score reflects the standards in place at the time of testing.

Rating requirements are updated every three years to encourage the inclusion of newer safety features and technologies in vehicles entering the Australian and New Zealand markets.

Buyers should check when a car was tested and which model was assessed.

It’s also important to consider the number of stars is an abstract rating – it doesn’t mean all five-star cars perform equally well in every area. Some may offer stronger crash protection, while others may be better at avoiding collisions or protecting pedestrians.

For anyone choosing between several top-rated vehicles, the detailed pillar scores can therefore be more informative than the stars alone.

How the ratings are changing

ANCAP has announced significant changes to its rating system.

Instead of the current four pillars, ANCAP will organise its assessments under a “Stages of Safety” framework (a reference to pre-, during and post-crash phases): safe driving, crash avoidance, crash protection and post-crash.

Crash testing remains part of the system but it becomes just one stage rather than the central construct.

The new approach places greater emphasis on features that help prevent crashes in the first place. This includes driver-monitoring technology and how reliably these systems work in real-world conditions – for example whether emergency braking can still detect pedestrians at night or in poor weather.

It also expands its assessment of safety features inside the vehicle by analysing issues such as whether key controls are accessible without using touchscreen menus.

More weight is also given to what happens after a crash. This includes whether electric door handles remain operable, if high-voltage batteries in electric vehicles are safely isolated and whether the vehicle can automatically notify emergency services with crash data through systems such as eCall.

What does all that mean?

While ANCAP is not a regulator, its ratings strongly influence what manufacturers supply to Australia and NZ and which cars buyers choose, meaning its priorities can shape real-world safety outcomes.

The new changes are broadly a positive step.

The main risk is, in broadening the existing framework, some areas may become less important.

Vulnerable road user protection was previously a distinct pillar and there is a chance its prominence could be diluted within a more complex system.

This matters because markets where safety ratings do not heavily emphasise vulnerable user protection – such as the United States – tend to have weaker incentives for manufacturers to prioritise it.

That’s partly why pedestrian safety outcomes are so vastly different between the US and other Western countries.

In recent years, the pedestrian death rate in Australia has risen despite improved car occupant safety. So, it’s important our rating systems do not lose emphasis on the risks outside the vehicle.

This is especially relevant as newer vehicles are becoming larger and taller – design features associated with higher injury risk for pedestrians and cyclists.

If safety ratings do not continue to highlight this clearly and prominently, buyers are less likely to notice it, its weight in the overall score will also decline, and manufacturers will naturally have less incentive to address it in vehicle design.

While greater emphasis on crash avoidance is welcome, crashes involving vulnerable road users will still occur. Protection should therefore continue to be clearly visible in ratings and a key criterion.

One alternative approach might have been to retain the existing pillars and build on them – for example by adding a fifth pillar, or expanding the current framework to include “safe driving” while integrating other new elements into the existing categories.