Victorian Government reveals The First Car List for safe, affordable used cars

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By Tim Beissmann | June 22nd, 2010

The Victorian Government has released a list of 49 of the safest and most affordable used cars as a guide for young drivers and their parents when looking to purchase a first car.

The First Car List was developed in collaboration with the Monash University Accident Research Centre (MUARC) and VicRoads, and includes vehicles ranging from $1800 to $14,000, and from 28 years old to three years old.

Victorian Roads Minister, Tim Pallas, said the list was just another effort to reduce the number of young people injured and killed in car crashes every year.

“Young people make up 13 percent of drivers, but they account for around 25 percent of all driver fatalities.

“The First Car List provides new drivers and their parents with the safety information required to make an informed decision when purchasing their first vehicle,” Mr Pallas said.

MUARC analysed more than three million accidents in compiling the data and scored the vehicles under two safety criteria: “crashworthiness” and “likely to harm another road user”.

Vehicles were graded between one and five stars (one meaning the vehicle would do significantly more harm than average, five meaning the vehicle would do significantly less harm than average) and were then matched to average prices for their specific model.

The First Car List states that “if all young drivers killed (or seriously injured) in crashes over the past five years had been driving the safest vehicle of the same age as the one they crashed in, more than 500 young deaths (and serious injuries) could have been prevented each year”.

The First Car List can be viewed in full on the Victorian Government’s Arrive Alive website: http://www.arrivealive.vic.gov.au/files/initiatives/firstcar/VRD0592_Used_Cars_Safety_List.pdf.

Meanwhile, Victorian Premier John Brumby has shown some support for an abbreviated probationary licence period for P-platers who complete defensive driving courses, admitting that encouraging additional driver training could be beneficial.

(with News Limited, AAP)

AAA

Good to know that Camry’s are safer than any Volvo’s

Opelman

Thats because the new Volvo is the Camry!!!! Bahahahahaha
Jester

Would love to see governmnet’s list of P=plater cars involved in fatal accidents since 2000 – every time I see some P plater wrapped around a tree its usually a Falcon or a Commodore. I still reckon to this day – if I drove Commodore or a Falcon I’d be one of them for sure, dead, thank God for great handling Japanese sports car for saving my skin.

Shak

Just because your revered Japanese car handles better, does not automatically mean you have more chance of surviving an accident. If you lose it at 80km/h in a Commodore or Mazda 6, you will most likely have an accident in both cases. In some instances the larger local cars would be even safer due to their better calibrated safety systems and their tougher hardware such as brakes and steering.

http://www.haha.com Sean

What you dont seem to understand is that you are far far more likely to lose control at 80km/h in the Commodore than in a better handling car and that it is harder to gain control again in the heavier Commodore, they like to slide.

What is more important is improving young drivers education so that they know how to control a car when the unpredictable happens. I know when my sister gets her P’s in a month or so I will be taking her to an adv driving course.

Long Live the Load lugger

Do you realise that it is normally the driver who has a lack of basic training, and not the car that causes these types of accidents (any car that hits a tree at above 60km is going to kill you) sure your Jap sports car is going to help, but if it’s not maintained, or has crap tyres, no brakes, it’s no better then a Falcon or commodore, probably worse because of the size and power.
What I will buy my son for a first car is irrelevant, as I will send him to advanced driver training, and try and install some level of basic maintance skills, and take him to track days so if he is ever in the situation he won’t inappropriatly speed / or be inattentive and kill his mates.

Jester

Training, go karts, paddock bashing, track days – all those things will save lives. Everyone should do them, especially if they love cars and driving.

Letting young lose in RWD, bad traction control systems or no TC at all, 1600kg cars, with skinny rear tyres, iffy and dull steering feedback, automatic trannies = is a cause for concern.

Pizza the Hut

Jester, when I was young, I knew everything too!

Now I think passive safety is just important as active and I prefer to have me and the family in cars that have both.

Dirty Harry

Go the mighty Magna, 5 stars!!
Mitsibishi should have never messed with it!!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1435885244 Yani Hendriawan

i don’t think this is going to stop the young ones from buying skylines and supras and silvias and all those cheap rwd cars

Jester

….or Falcon’s and Commodore’s that are on TV every couple of weeks with a P-platers dead. Buy good handling cars and live – buy sloppy handling cars and better be super careful, because cars won’t be good to you.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1435885244 Yani Hendriawan

or just learn to drive

Tom22

That is true, we should buy all our kids Ferrari’s, that way they’ll survive.

Dave

Aussie RWD cars are some of the best handling cars in that price range. RWD will almost always handle better than the jap FWD cars.

yowza

Handle?

Lol, I think you meant “Mishandle”

Commodore/Falcons are the most “mishandled” cars by young drivers, because its easy to do fish tails.. ahem… negligent driving in them.

And FWD and 4WD are easier to control in wet conditions/slippery conditions. Does that count for handling?

RWD is over rated on the roads, where sharp turning or turns at 60kmph + is a norm. No one with a sane mind drives that way on the road.
Yes RWD will always be more fun, no doubt, but understand that for everyday road driving, FWD is fine.

Weekend driving around the mountains or the coast line or the track.. a RWD will probably better appreciated.

Dave

You sound someone from a marketing department.

FWD: why would you want all the cars weight over the front wheels, this can not be good for handling wet or dry.

4×4: More weight, more cost and often found in SUv’s prone to roll-over.

Hung Low

Pathetic attempt to look like the really care!

How about using some of that revenue from all those cameras into driver education, licencesing and driver training?

MAK

Well said

Dont forget improving the quality of the roads too

fourl6

that is a absolute joke, a old (late 90s) peugeot/astra/vectra/saab etc. would be the most unreliable first car, did they take into count a holden vectras habit of randomly stalling? im sure thats real safe in the middle of a intersection

toxic_horse

there talking about crash protection.
Simonsez

JS model Vectras have an Idle Air Control valve that can cause the stalling problem when /if they get clogged up. It only happened to me twice in 10 years and was easily rectified with some throttle body cleaner and about 30 minutes work. It’s really just basic maintenance and something that anyone with an ounce of mechanical ability could do themselves.
The only actual problem they have would be a need to keep the bolt which secures the driver’s side intrusion bar secured as it tends to loosen after time.

Devil’s Advocate

Do they take into consideration active as well as passive safety? Being able to avoid the crash in the first place can be just as important as how well the car performs once it hits something.

Jester

Exactly – I’d say any of the sports cars will have much better active safety – better brakes, bigger tyres, better suspension – those cars are bloody hard to crash, unless you are a really junk driver. Looking at the safety after the crash is only important if you crash in the first place. I’d rather be in a Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera than a Megane 5-star ancap rated car any day.

toxic_horse

What rubbish. a RWD car with wide tires and stiff suspension. One that a young person is likely to buy would most likely not have abs esp and the like.
Its dangerous in the wet unless you know its limits and are a decent driver.

http://www.haha.com Sean

That is ridiculous, abs is not some magical device that makes you stop. I was driving a camry down a hill the other day that had abs, car pulled out in front of me so I hit the anchors and abs jumped in. The car slid and slid, was going 50km/h the speed limit in back streets and stopped by about a meter.

If i had been in my supra at the time i would have stopped in half the distance.

Id rather proper brakes, proper tyres and proper suspension over electronic gimmiks anyday…
yowza

Thats the thing, young drivers will always be attracted to RWD cars that are easy to do fancy fishies or burn outs in…. sure there are also those who simply like their sports cars RWD, which is fine… but you wont see these sorts “thrashing” their beloved cars on public roads like those douche bag show offs.

I’d be crazy to do a burn out or hammer it around a round about… those 275/40s low profiles are like $400 each tyre hehe. Like i said its those typical douches with no regard to their cars, and it happens to be that they drive cheap Falcons, Commodores… because they are cheap duh.

Opelman

Interesting. All the vehicles that they nominated out of the range of Holdens, none of their Korean offerings made then cut. I guess this tells us something

Robin Graves

When Vectras and Astras are in the list, it tells us the list is a joke.

Tim

Most definitely not.

Matt

So, the recent ‘howsafeisyourcar’ campaign screamed at us not to buy cars without side curtain airbags; now we have this list of which only 6 cars have them: the Ford Focus, the Golf, Mazdas 3 & 6, & the Falcon & the Camry.
So what are the government saying now? Dont worry about curtain airbags?!?!?! In the meantime our taxes keep paying for all these almost contradictory campaigns….
Save it for the track

The problems that the young have with Falcons and Commodores are that they are RWD. FWD are far more predictable and easier to drive for the majority of today’s generation.
It’s all well and good banging on about better driver education, but when people don’t even know which wheels are driving their cars, and the differences in handling between RWD, FWD and AWD, in this age of ‘google’ and the internet, who is to blame?? Why is it that the driving schools at the moment don’t tell the young ones which wheels drive the car?? I understand that too many driving instructor’s in our country also probably don’t know and can’t explain the differences between RWD & FWD, but really people, use the internet, check out a car magazine, speak to a mechanic, it’s not hard stuff to get some basic info. The list is amusing in the way that it basically just repeats ANCAP ratings or similar. As mentioned by others those ratings don’t reflect ability to avoid a crash, and as it is when those ratings are affected by such nuances as the inclusion or not of a warning light for a passenger seatbelt, how can they be taken seriously?

Jester

First time I agree with you.
Andrew M

I would say RWD is more predictable because its easier to save when its out of control.

ALl you can do with an FWD when its understeering is sit back and hope it turns.

How many people understand that accelerating will straighten up a FWD car??
How many people understand that accelerating when towing a trailer will pull the wobble out of it???

Education is key so its no point saying FWD is better if natural instinct isnt to do what is needed.

Oh yeah, seat belt minders…..
But it works doesnt it..

Scott

Someone really did their homework here not.

AU LTD. Beautiful car, but since when can P platers drive 5.0L v8′s.

http://www.saabsunited.com Swade

Along the same lines…..

Vic govt tell parents that a Saab’s OK to buy for their new driving kids, but the same Vic govt tells a P-plater they can’t register a Saab because it has a turbo.

Left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing…..

Shak

Thankfully we havent gotten to the level of stupidity when compared to you know who. But the ways Brumby’s going he may declare Civil war on the other states just because they dont collect enough traffic fine revenue or their drivers can drive 10km/h higher in some areas.

Micky

The AU LTD was also available with the 4.0L I6.

Micky

I can’t believe they are recommending cars that have NO airbags. Any car on that list from the 1980s does not have airbags. The first car in our market that had them was the 1990 LS400. Of course, being a V8, it’s not on that list, but it should be (most modern V6s produce more power than the original LS). Doesn’t explain why the Lexus ES isn’t on the list, either.
http://aautocars.blogspot.com Auto Cars

That is true, we should buy safest car, that way they’ll survive.