Safest family cars 2024/2025

Few things are as precious as family, so it’s only fitting that your loved ones should be carried around in a five-star car. Of course, the stars we’re talking about here are awarded by Euro NCAP, and only the safest family cars manage to make the grade.

Not only do these cars boast some of the very best scores when it comes to crash protection and active safety equipment, but our expert road testers truly rate them when it comes to driving and ownership, too.

Skoda Superb

• Prices from £35,000
• Euro NCAP Rating: 5 stars (2024)
• Adult occupant score: 93%
• Child occupant score: 87%
• Vulnerable road users score: 82%
• Safety assist score: 80%

Available as a hatchback or estate car, the Skoda Superb is a hugely spacious machine that’ll not only ferry around your family (and their luggage) in comfort, but it’ll keep them well protected, too. The list of advanced safety kit is a substantial one, including lane departure warning, lane-keeping assistance, traffic sign recognition and adaptive cruise control. The Superb will keep you protected from the elements when you step out of it, too, as the coveted Skoda umbrella can be found within the driver’s door.

Volkswagen Passat

• Prices from £38,500
• Euro NCAP Rating: 5 stars (2024)
• Adult occupant score: 93%
• Child occupant score: 87%
• Vulnerable road users score: 82%
• Safety assist score: 80%

Now in its ninth generation, the Volkswagen Passat has taken a bit of a step upmarket compared with its predecessors. However, if you can stomach the rather high starting price, the advantage of this added poshness is a refined and comfortable car that’s suited to taking on school runs and motorway commutes in equal measure. There’s plenty of safety kit thrown in as standard, too, although rear passenger airbags are an optional extra.

MG HS 

• Prices from £25,000
• Euro NCAP Rating: 5 stars (2024)
• Adult occupant score: 90%
• Child occupant score: 85%
• Vulnerable road users score: 83%
• Safety assist score: 74%

Gone are the days when low cost meant major sacrifices, as the MG HS is a fully fledged SUV that offers pretty much all of the safety kit of its more expensive rivals. The Chinese-owned brand even chucks in a seven-year/80,000-mile warranty to sweeten the deal. Admittedly, this isn’t the most exciting car (nor even the most exciting MG) in terms of the driving experience. However, when it comes to quality, our road testers genuinely struggled to find any obvious signs of how the HS’s price has been kept so much lower than virtually all of the competition.

Safest family car Euro NCAP scores