What is the Safety section in a vehicle history report?

The Safety section in a vehicle history report provides valuable information about the vehicle’s safety ratings and recalls (if any). This section is essential for understanding a specific model's safety equipment and performance and whether a car has any unresolved safety-related issues.

Safety ratings

If safety ratings are available, the Safety section will include the results from one of the three car safety assessment programs – the NHTSA (the US), Euro NCAP (Europe), and ANCAP (Australia and New Zealand). These organizations perform various tests to inform drivers about a car’s ability to protect passengers in different real-life accident scenarios.

Safety rating information includes:

• An overall vehicle safety score (from 0 to 5 (Euro NCAP and ANCAP ) or 1 to 5 stars (NHTSA))
• Explanation of the provided score
• Results for specific tested areas (can vary by program)

Recalls

Car recall information is crucial for safety since recalls address various defects that can increase the risk of accidents. If a recall is issued for a vehicle and this data is available, it will be displayed in the Safety section of the report.

Recall information can include (depending on the availability):

• Recall title
• Recall status (Active, Solved, or Unknown)
• Recall number
• Risk level
• Description

How to interpret safety data

Although car safety assessment programs present their test results differently, the core idea is to show how well a vehicle can protect its occupants in emergencies or help avoid them. Therefore, the higher the rating, the lower the likelihood or severity of injuries in the event of an accident.

Take Euro NCAP guidelines, for example:

• 5-star safety – overall excellent performance in crash protection and well-equipped with state-of-the-art crash avoidance technology
• 4-star safety – overall good performance in crash protection and prevention, but does not reach the highest standards in all key assessment areas
• 3-star safety – a vehicle that provides an average level of safety performance, offering a medium standard in safety
• 2-star safety – nominal crash protection but below-average performance in one or more of the key assessment areas
• 1-star safety – marginal crash protection and minimal crash avoidance technology beyond the legal requirements
• 0-star safety – meeting type-approval standards so can legally be sold but lacking critical modern safety technology

Each assessment area – Adult Occupant Protection, Child Occupant Protection, Vulnerable Road User Protection, and Safety Assist – has a maximum score, which is divided into more specific test categories (e.g., frontal impact, side impact, and rescue and extrication). In these categories, vehicles must meet specific criteria to reach the maximum score.

As for the recalls, they are issued to warn about safety-related defects and fix them. While these can be anything from faulty radio wiring to problems with engine components, it’s important to take recalls seriously and act fast to prevent accidents and injuries.

How can this knowledge help you when buying a used car?

Knowing a vehicle’s safety information can be crucial for your purchase decision, as you can:

1. 1.Assess vehicle reliability

2. 2.Confirm safety feature availability

3. 3.Understand potential risks

If a vehicle’s safety performance score is low or the recall indicates a high safety risk and repairs are not promptly available, it's generally recommended to consider other options.

What if the Safety section is missing from the report?

Sometimes, car safety ratings may not be available in a report because a vehicle hasn’t undergone the necessary safety assessments yet. NCAP organizations worldwide don't have the capacity to test every model on the market and all of its variants. Therefore, they often pick more popular vehicles.

If recall information is missing from a report, recall data may not have been included due to data availability, or the vehicle might not have had any recalls at the time the report was generated.

Still have questions? If you need more help understanding the Safety section of your report, feel free to reach out to our support team.