10 safest cars on sale in the UK 2025

When you’re buying a new vehicle, it makes sense to get the safest one possible. Even though buyers can be pretty confident that any new car meets the basic safety standards, there’s still a wide gulf between the best and worst cars on sale today – and for those who drive lots or want to carry the precious cargo of family, children and pets, high safety standards are crucial.

Naturally, safety testing has to be entrusted to a third party – even our expert reviews team can’t get away with crashing test cars just to see if they survive – and in the UK the organisation responsible for this is Euro NCAP. Euro NCAP performs a wide range of safety tests, including crash tests at different speeds, using sophisticated dummies to measure the loads on occupants’ bodies.

It also tests pedestrian safety, as well as things like the proper fitment of child seats and the presence and operation of safety features such as lane-keeping assist and autonomous emergency braking.

Euro NCAP’s tests are constantly changing, to the point where the organisation says you shouldn’t compare vehicles tested in different years against each other. So when compiling a list of the safest cars on sale, we limited it exclusively to cars Euro NCAP tested during 2024.

The safest cars on sale are:

• Mercedes E-Class
• Skoda Superb
• Audi Q6 e-tron
• Mazda CX-80
• Porsche Macan Electric
• Cupra Tavascan
• Toyota C-HR
• MG HS
• Volvo EX30
• Subaru Crosstrek

Scores: Adult occupant (AO), Child Occupant (CO), Vulnerable Road Users (VRU), Safety Assist (SA)

Mercedes E-Class

AO: 92% CO: 90% VRU: 84% SA: 87%

The Mercedes E-Class is a super high-tech executive car, and historically it’s always benefitted from sophisticated safety kit filtering down from the flagship S-Class. That, along with a strong structure and great passive safety, means it’s the single safest vehicle Euro NCAP tested during 2024.

With scores of 92% and 90% for adult and child occupant protection respectively, you can be sure that the E-Class will provide great protection for the whole family inside – and those scores apply to both the E-Class saloon and the larger estate model.

Meanwhile, a score of 84% in pedestrian safety is equally impressive, while an 87% score in the safety assist category means that the scores of safety tech are effective in their operation.

The E-Class also feels safe to drive. It’s easy to turn off some of the more annoying alerts with just one button press, while most functions are available at a high level on the infotainment screen – so while there aren’t many physical controls, you don’t have to fiddle about with the touchscreen too much.

Good visibility, hugely comfortable seats and an array of programs designed to keep you alert at the wheel also mean the E-Class is great for long trips, where you’ll stay awake in comfort. A special mention has to go to Mercedes’ adaptive LED headlights – they’re the best we’ve used, lighting up a huge portion of the road and only blanking out the very specific area where oncoming cars are.

And even if safety isn’t your primary concern, the E-Class has a lot going for it. It’s very spacious – especially the estate – comfortable on a long journey, and has the option of some really efficient engines. The full-width Superscreen on some versions adds real wow factor, but the E-Class feels like a limousine in miniature even in the lower trim levels. It’s a shame it costs like a limousine, though – you’ll pay handsomely, especially for versions with lots of optional equipment.

Skoda Superb

AO: 93% CO: 87% VRU: 82% SA: 80%

The Superb is a really fantastic car – we awarded it the ‘Comfortable Cruiser’ category in the 2025 Carwow Car of the Year awards. As a super-spacious, practical hatchback or estate, it’ll no doubt be purchased by a lot of family buyers – so it’s great to know it’s almost as safe as the much more expensive Mercedes-Benz E-Class, according to Euro NCAP.

The Superb’s 93% score for adult occupant protection is actually a little higher than the E-Class’s, and ties with its sister car the Volkswagen Passat for the highest rating of any car you can buy in the UK. It’s not too shabby in the other areas, either – scoring 87% for child occupant protection, 82% for pedestrian safety and 80% in the safety assist category. All of these are very impressive scores.

Skoda allows you to tailor the safety features of the Superb easily, with an easy-to-follow menu which can be accessed from a customisable shortcut on the touchscreen. There’s also a trio of physical dials underneath the screen, which allow you to change some settings without faffing about with onscreen menus.

The Superb also has good visibility, all-round sensors and a reversing camera so manoeuvring around town and parking is made safer. From the mid-spec model up you get some really excellent Matrix LED headlights too, which maximises visibility at night.

With a gigantic boot – up to 690 litres in the estate, bigger than any alternative – and rear seat space to rival a concert hall, let alone other family cars, the Superb is among the most practical vehicles you can buy. It certainly makes you question if you really need that high-riding SUV to get maximum practicality. You even get an ISOFIX point to securely mount a child seat in the front – not always a given.

If you like the Superb but fancy a slightly posher badge, then go for the Volkswagen Passat. It has a similarly spacious boot and almost as much rear space, but a slightly different design – however, its safety scores are identical to the Skoda’s.

Audi Q6 e-tron

AO: 91% CO: 92% VRU: 81% SA: 80%

The Audi Q6 e-tron may not be as big or as expensive as the flagship Q8 e-tron, but it has more tech than that car because it’s based on much newer and shinier underpinnings.

That means that not only do you get Audi’s flashiest interior with the most goodies for you and your passengers, but you get the most sophisticated and up-to-date safety kit. As a result the Q6 e-tron returned the best Euro NCAP results of any electric car tested in 2024, besides a couple of not-for-the-UK Zeekr models.

The Q6 scored an impressive 91% in the adult safety category, and its score of 92% for child occupants is actually the highest for any car tested in 2024. Respectable returns of 81% and 80% in the vulnerable road users and safety assist categories round out an admirable roster of safety ratings.

There’s some really interesting safety tech aboard the Q6 e-tron, too. Audi’s customisable LED taillights can actually communicate with other road users, for example showing a hazard symbol if there’s danger ahead, while they and the daytime running lights display a specific graphic if the car is doing an auto-parking manoeuvre.

All-round cameras and sensors feature, of course, though they are somewhat making up for the Q6’s high-set windowline leading to quite poor visibility round town, especially to the rear. The Q6’s interior also has the potential to be quite distracting, as it’s positively screen-tastic. Not only do you get a digital driver’s display, but almost all of the car’s functions including the climate control are accessed through the central infotainment screen – though it is at least massive and responsive.

However, while top models get a screen for the front-seat passenger, this can’t distract the driver thanks to a polarising feature which makes it invisible from the driver’s seat. Clever.

Mazda CX-80

AO: 92% CO: 88% VRU: 84% SA: 79%

If you want a really posh-feeling large SUV but don’t fancy opting for one of the premium brands, then the Mazda CX-80 is a great option – and as you’d hope for a family-oriented SUV, it returned impressive scores in Euro NCAP’s safety testing.

With a top result of 92% for adult occupant protection, 88% for child occupants, and 84% and 79% for vulnerable road users and safety assist tech respectively, the CX-80 is the safest seven-seater tested in 2024, so even large families can be assured that there’s a model out there for them.

The CX-80’s safety tech doesn’t do anything particularly clever, but Mazda is known for building its cars to be very stiff and strong – this not only improves their handling but makes them perform well in crash testing too.

There’s plenty else to recommend the CX-80, too. While its plug-in hybrid engine is rather clunky and not too efficient, the other option available is a 3.3-litre six-cylinder diesel engine. That might sound like a product of a bygone age, but it’s actually incredibly clean, very economical and fantastic to drive. It suits the big Mazda very well indeed.

The interior feels like a million bucks thanks to great material choices and a simple, clean design that doesn’t just add technology in for the sake of it. While the third row isn’t as roomy as you’d find in something like a Land Rover Discovery, there’s still space for adults to get comfy back there – and you can even opt for a luxurious six-seater layout with captain’s chairs in the middle.

Porsche Macan Electric

AO: 90% CO: 90% VRU: 83% SA: 78%

Sharing its mechanical underpinnings and battery system with the Audi Q6 e-tron means the Porsche Macan is similarly sophisticated – but it’s different enough for Euro NCAP to test separately. Its scores were very similar to the Audis, unsurprisingly, but just a few clicks lower.

The Macan returned 90% scores in both adult and child protection, along with ratings of 83% and 78% for the vulnerable road user and safety assist categories.

The Macan Electric gets all the standard, mandated safety tech, but Porsche allows you to curate your car more than most manufacturers. You don’t even get adaptive cruise control as standard – it’s an optional extra, so you can really pick and choose which features you’ll actually use and which ones will just annoy you.

The surround-view cameras – another option – are an option box well worth ticking, we’d say, as are the very sophisticated Matrix LED headlights. Neither of these are particularly expensive (by Porsche standards, anyway).

Other features include the same kind of passenger display as you get in the Q6, which is cleverly invisible to the driver when displaying certain content. One safety feature that all Porsche models have built-in is their handling – they’re incredibly direct and responsive, so should you find yourself needing to react quickly to a situation on the roa you’ll find the car very supportive of your movements.

Cupra Tavascan

AO: 89% CO: 86% VRU: 80% SA: 79%

The Cupra Tavascan is the Spanish performance brand’s version of the Volkswagen ID5, Audi Q4 Sportback e-Tron or Skoda Enyaq Coupe. As a result, it shares the same mechanicals, chassis, battery pack and motors as those cars.

All of those vehicles have five-star Euro NCAP ratings so it’s perhaps not surprising that the Tavascan returned impressive scores too. It totted up scores of 89% in adult occupant protection, 86% in child occupant protection, 80% in the vulnerable road user category and 79% for its safety assistance tech.

The Tavascan’s sister cars have been criticised in the past for needlessly complicated touchscreen systems that drive the entire interior, but the Tavascan’s display is a big improvement on previous Cupra systems. You’ll still take your eyes off the road perhaps a fraction more than you’d like, but excellent voice control systems and the ability to pin your most-used functions as shortcuts does go some way to addressing this.

The Tavascan’s stylish silhouette, more-than-usable range and charging speeds and generally inoffensive driving dynamics – combined with much better looks than most of its siblings – mean it’s well worth considering if you’re after a practical family EV.

Toyota C-HR

AO: 85% CO: 86% VRU: 86% SA: 79%

The Toyota C-HR’s new Prius-inspired look and optional two-tone paint makes it a comparative supermodel of the small SUV class – it really stands out in a crowd, something you couldn’t really have said about its predecessor no matter how hard it tried.

It’s good to know that the C-HR is a safe car, too, with scores of 85%, 86%, 86% and 79% in Euro NCAP’s four safety testing categories.

It does come in for a bit of criticism right off the bat, though, as to deactivate or otherwise tinker with these safety aids requires that you dive deep into a plethora of confusing touchscreen menus. Alternatives mostly offer shortcuts to do this quickly and easily, without having to take your eyes off the road – it’s a pity Toyota doesn’t.

If you can live with that, though, you’ll find plenty more to recommend the C-HR. It’s very comfortable to drive, and much more spacious than the car it replaces. There’s also the prospect of very low running costs – both self-charging hybrid engine options are really economical, while the plug-in hybrid makes a very cost-effective company car.

MG HS

AO: 90% CO: 85% VRU: 83% SA: 74%

The previous MG HS was a top-seller for the brand because it was cheap and spacious. The new model is still cheap and even more practical than it was before, but now has some other feathers in its cap – and a five-star Euro NCAP rating is one of them.

A great score of 90% for adult occupant protection, and 85%, 83% and 74% in child occupant, vulnerable road user and safety assist categories respectively, are all very good scores especially for a large SUV that undercuts some small hatchbacks in price.

Even MG’s semi-autonomous features are quite good – though it has to be said that activating or deactivating them through the slow, awkward touchscreen is an exercise that’s best done while stationary if you want to remain safe.

You can get the HS with a regular petrol engine which is very cheap to buy, but the more impressive powertrain is the plug-in hybrid – this has up to 75 miles of all-electric range, which means incredibly low company car tax and the potential for very cheap running costs if you charge the battery up from a low-cost home supply.

Volvo EX30

AO: 88% CO: 85% VRU: 79% SA: 80%

The Volvo EX30 is one of the best small electric cars out there. It’s so good that we named it Carwow Car of the Year for 2023, and even a couple of years from its introduction it’s still highly-rated.

Volvo is a company that’s fastidious about safety, so it’s perhaps no surprise that the EX30 scored the full five stars in Euro NCAP’s safety tests. It scored 88% for adult occupant protection, 85% for child occupant protection, 79% in the vulnerable road user category and 80% in the safety assist category.

Volvo’s Pilot Assist semi-autonomous driving aids are some of the best around – they’re not fazed by other road users and rarely react unpredictably. The EX30, however, does operate absolutely everything – including small functions like opening the glovebox – through its central touchscreen. You’ll even find the driving information there. This might mean it’s not quite as safe as some alternatives on the move, especially if you’re a bit of a technophobe and don’t get on too well with modern touchscreen infotainment systems.

Subaru Crosstrek

AO: 83% CO: 90% VRU: 85% SA: 72%

Subaru might not be the first company that springs to mind when you think of safety, but perhaps it should be – every Subaru car tested by Euro NCAP since 2009 has scored a full five-star rating.

The Crosstrek might not be the most efficient, roomy or luxurious car, but it does do certain things well – and scores of 83%, 90%, 85% and 72% in Euro NCAP’s four categories are testament to its commitment to safety.

Subaru’s assisted driving tech is very good – it uses a system called ‘Eyesight’ which is based off two cameras above the rear-view mirror. Also worth noting is that all Subaru vehicles have all-wheel drive – this is fantastic for safety, as it provides welcome traction in slippery conditions and reduces the risk of being out of control if you enter a corner too fast.

The Crosstrek isn’t perfect – it’s quite pricey, uses a lot of fuel and its hybrid engine is pretty gutless. But it’s great off-road and really safe, and being a Subaru you can be sure it’ll last forever.

Looking for an easy way to change your car? Then Carwow is the place to go. You can sell your old car for a great price, and get the best deals on a new one. All through our network of trusted dealers and all from the comfort of your home. Tap the button below to get started today.