Safety campaigner disappointed by Monash/AA safety rating guide

The Monash University / AA list of safe used cars (below) is both impractical and misleading, says the car review website dogandlemon.com.

Editor Clive Matthew-Wilson, who is an outspoken road safety campaigner, says the list mainly recommends vehicles that are large and unreliable.

“The AA/Monash study mainly points out the obvious, which is that larger vehicles tend to do better in crashes. That’s not much comfort to someone using the Monash list to find a safe light car, because according to the Monash list, there aren’t any.”

None of the light cars in  the Monash list  get a five star rating. The highest rating light car in the Monash list is the Volkswagen Polo 2002-10, which gets four stars. All the rest get one to three stars.

Matthew-Wilson adds that many of the vehicles recommended as safe are “totally impractical for the average car buyer.”

“The Monash list recommends vehicles such as the BMW X5 2001-06. These vehicles combine appalling reliability with very high repair costs. The giant American Consumer Reports organisation included this vehicle in its list of ‘worst of the worst cars’. The same applies to most of the other European vehicles recommended in the list. In fact due to their age and likely mileage, the AA would not provide mechanical insurance for many of the vehicles that they recommend.*

Matthew-Wilson adds that several of the vehicles recommended as ‘safe’ are likely to cripple some occupants in a serious collision.

“The Hyundai iLoad van 2008-14, recommended by the AA, has a lap-only seatbelt in the centre front seat, known to practically tear the wearer in two in a serious accident, even if the other occupants walk away unscathed. The same applies to the Honda Odyssey 2004-09, which has lap-only seatbelts in the centre rear seats.”

Matthew-Wilson says the entire concept behind this list is flawed.

“Many recommended cars are impractical and sometimes unsafe.  The AA should tear up this list and start again.”

• The AA and the NZ Transport Agency are members of the Vehicle Safety Research Group, which commissioned the analysis of the crash data by the Monash University Accident Research Centre.

An earlier analysis of crash data by the Monash University Accident Research Centre was used as the basis for the New Zealand government’s ACC ratings and was shown to be deeply flawed. The government was forced to twice modify its ACC ratings as a result of the flaws discovered in the Monash data.

* The AA’s mechanical insurance policy charges extra for European vehicles and will only insure cars that are:

“12 years old and less that have travelled less than 150,000km at commencement of cover.”

http://www.aa.co.nz/site-info/ terms-and-conditions/aa-mbi/