The Used Car Safety Ratings (or UCSR) will help you when looking for a second-hand car.

It uses the records of over 2.8 million crashes on Australian and New Zealand roads to rate cars according to their on-road crash performance, as well as how well they protect drivers in a crash.

The rating system is divided into two components: Crashworthiness and Aggressivity.

Crashworthiness is the level of safety protection provided by a car. To determine this rating, a number of factors are considered including the structural design of the car body and safety features such as airbags, seat belt design and so on.

Aggressivity is the risk each car presents to other drivers involved in a crash. This rating is influenced by physical factors such as car mass, body stiffness and so on.

In a multiple car crash, a driver’s risk of serious injury is a combination of the crashworthiness provided by their own car, and the aggressivity of the other car involved.

The Used Car Safety Ratings can be found here.