As a new father in the market for our first family vehicle, I am perplexed by the lack of a definitive safest vehicle. I understand that the industry standard testing and its respective organisations assign consumer vehicles a safety rating by which you can see a spectrum of “safe” vehicles but what is truly the safest car on the road?

I find it odd as a hobbyist in many different things, that a simple google or YouTube search for “the safest vehicle” never returns a specific result? Is there corporate influence at play or is there just no simple answer?

I’d ask the community here a few questions:

Firstly, what do you believe is the safest vehicle on the market right now and why? (Specifically related to impact safety, excluding how testing organisations factor in things like electronic avoidance systems and other things not related to structural safety)

Secondly, where should I be searching for this kind of definitive data and why is it so difficult to find the so called “best” vehicle in regards to safety?

And lastly, what kind of questions should I be asking at dealerships in regards to safety and what can be done on my part after purchasing a vehicle to further improve the safety?