Victorians are being urged to prioritise safety when buying a used car with the release of this year’s Used Car Safety Ratings helping to save lives.

The Allan Labor Government today released the annual ratings, announcing changes to the way they are determined.

For the first time, safety ratings have considered a vehicle’s level of protection for other road users and the presence of crash avoidance features, such as autonomous emergency braking, lane keep assist and reversing sensors and cameras.

Previously, the ratings only included the protection a vehicle provided its driver. This has been changed to encourage people to consider more than just crash protection and their own safety when choosing a car.

This year, 518 vehicle models received a star rating out of five for driver protection, a vehicle’s ability to keep other road users safe, and its capacity to prevent a crash through included collision avoidance technologies.

The new focus on protection levels for other road users has resulted in a reduction in overall safety ratings for some larger dual cab utilities, while medium SUVs were the safest vehicles overall.

Of the drivers and passengers who have died on Victoria’s roads this year, more than half were travelling in vehicles aged 10 years or more.

Monash University Accident Research Centre calculated the ratings by analysing more than nine million vehicles and 2.5 million injured road users involved in police-reported road crashes across Australia and New Zealand between 1987 and 2021.

The TAC’s How Safe is Your Car website has all the new ratings. People in the market for a new or used car can visit howsafeisyourcar.com.au