Safety first! While safety features might not always be the first things that comes to mind when buying a new car, there’s no doubting the importance of safety, especially if you are driving around with little ones. Even if you're buying a car you won’t be driving every day, accidents can happen at any time. By preparing yourself for the worst by buying a safer car, you can feel more at ease behind the wheel, and in the end have a far more enjoyable driving experience. And the truth is you don’t have to spend a ton of money on a car for the privilege. If you are interested in the top safest vehicles for under $25K, check out these most frequently asked questions.
The 2018 Civic offers a number of notable safety features with its optional Honda Sensing system that includes lane departure warning, forward collision warning, road departure mitigation, lane keeping assist, adaptive cruise control and more. There’s also a standard rearview camera for backing up.
When designing a car, automakers in-part focus on accident prevention and crash safety. This means they think of all the possible ways to prevent accidents and try to design a car that keeps the driver alive and safe in the event of a crash. By fine tuning brake performance, stability and handling, automakers can crate a much safer car. They also analyze crumple zones, chassis formation and of course airbag performance and placement.
When it comes to determining crashworthiness, or how a vehicle performs in a crash, an organization called the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration rates cars on a five-star scale. When rating the cars, the NHTSA analyzes driver and safety in frontal, side and rollover impacts and determines how safe they are. And then there’s an overall rating that determines overall safety. Many safe cars will receive four stars, but the very safest cars will receive up to five stars overall.
The safest vehicles under $25,000 include the 2018 Honda Civic, the 2018 Volkswagen Golf and 2018 the Mazda CX-5. These vehicles not only offers the highest safety ratings of any vehicle in their class, but they also offer several useful safety features that are designed to help you prevent accidents before they happen.
The 2018 Honda Civic offers some of the most impressive safety ratings of any compact car on the market and is available for as low as $18,840. The Civic received five stars for its frontal crash, side crash and rollover test with a five-star overall safety rating from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The Golf is available with a wide variety of optional features. Drivers can get automatic emergency braking, forward collision warning to prevent frontal crashes, lane departure warning, blind spot monitoring, pedestrian detection, rear cross traffic alert to prevent side crashes, and pedestrian detection. A rearview camera comes standard.
The Safest SUV is the 2018 Mazda CX-5. While it doesn’t offer a five-star overall safety rating, it did receive five stars for the frontal and side crash tests, and four stars for the rollover test and overall rating. On top of this, the vehicle comes standard with safety features like blind spot monitoring, rear cross traffic alert, automatic braking and a rearview camera. Additional optional features include lane keeping assist, automatic emergency braking and adaptive cruise control. However, none of these features should be considered a substitute for safe, alert driving at all times.
The 2018 Volkswagen Golf has also received some excellent safety rating. While it may have received four stars in the front crash and rollover tests, it received five stars for its side crash test and five-stars overall, making it a safe compact for families overall.