Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) safety ratings are published for a range of new vehicles entering the Australian and New Zealand markets

Used Car Safety Ratings (UCSR’s) help you to identify safer second hand cars.

Since 1993, ANCAP has published independent safety ratings for thousands of new vehicle makes, models and variants. These independent safety ratings are used to compare the relative safety between vehicles of similar size, and have become critical in car selection for private and fleet buyers.

Monash University Accident Research Centre estimate and develop the UCSR.

ANCAP ratings include a “year tested” – the rating ‘year tested’ is the easiest way to tell how current an ANCAP safety rating is. Look for a vehicle which holds the maximum 5 star ANCAP safety rating with the latest ‘year tested’.

If you're wanting to maximise your safety and the safety of others, look for a vehicle with a 5-star overall safety rating and a 'SAFER PICK' marker.

Used Car Safety Rating Safer Pick

These vehicles:

• Provide good protection for the driver
• Are less likely to kill or seriously injure other driver, pedestrians, cyclists and motorcylists
• Have a lower risk of being involved in a crash through having key crash avoidance technologies available.

Every three years, ANCAP’s test and safety rating criteria is updated – to reflect vehicle safety advancements and ensure all road users benefit from safer vehicles.

Vehicles rated by ANCAP are evaluated against four key areas of assessment - reflecting the key ‘stages of safety’.This approach captures how the vehicle can protect before a crash, during a crash, and after a crash:

Safe Driving, Crash Avoidance, Crash Protection and Post-Crash.

ANCAP safety ratings are displayed using a scale of 0-5 stars.

To view the scoring table visit ANCAP

Vehicles rated by ANCAP prior to 2026 were put through a very similar range of crash tests and crash avoidance tests, however different assessment pillars were used to determine the overall star rating.

These pillars were Adult Occupant Protection, Child Occupant Protection, Vulnerable Road User Protection, and Safety Assist. This approach was in place from 2018 to 2025.

As ANCAP’s rating criteria changes every few years, it is important to check the date stamp year that sits alongside the star rating. Vehicles rated more recently have been assessed against more rigorous criteria.

More information on ANCAP test protocols can be found here.

ANCAP’s safety testing has recently expanded beyond passenger cars, SUVs and utes.

While commercial vans, light trucks and large utes (or pickups) haven’t yet been crash tested, their crash avoidance systems have been put to the test.

The active safety systems examined in these vehicles include autonomous emergency braking (AEB), lane support systems (LSS), blind spot monitoring (BSM), speed assistance systems (SAS), driver monitoring systems (DMS), and intelligent seatbelt reminders.

Where physical crash testing hasn’t taken place, a performance grading of Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze or Not Recommended is awarded.

Those that offer the best overall crash avoidance performance have achieved a Platinum grading.

See ANCAP Vans for more details.

The Used Car Safety Ratings focus on used vehicles and are based on real-world crash statistics and are determined through the analysis of police-reported crashes where someone was killed or injured.

The overall safety star rating applied to each vehicle rated considers three components of vehicle safety performance.

They are:

• How well the vehicle protects its driver from being killed or seriously injured (Driver Protection Rating)
• How well the vehicle protects other drivers, pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists from being killed or seriously injured in a crash (Protection for Other Road Users Rating)
• The reduction in likelihood of being involved in a crash through key crash avoidance technologies being available in the vehicle (Crash Avoidance Rating)

The Vehicle Emissions Star Rating (VESR) is a national tool developed by the NSW government in consultation with the Australian Government. Vehicles are rated in half star increments based on the vehicles tailpipe carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions released per kilometre. Ranging from a half star for vehicles with up to 250 grams of CO2 per kilometer to six stars for vehicles with zero grams of CO2 per kilometre.

For more information visit VESR