Your car’s Euro NCAP crash safety rating matters much more than you think

Picture this: you’re in a car dealership looking at what could be your new pride and joy, and the suave salesperson moseys on up to you. What’s the first question you ask them? How long is the warranty? How big’s the boot? Likely, if you’ve got kids or lots of kit. Does the grille light up? Hopefully not, unless it’s out of a sense of bewilderment or horror – especially if it’s a Mercedes showroom you’re in. But I bet you’ve never thought to ask “How safe is this car?”. 

If you did ask that question and the salesperson’s response was either to fake getting a phone call or joke “Oh jeez, this thing is an absolute deathtrap!” before shamefully staring at the floor, I’d advise you to leave that dealership promptly. 

What I hope they’d do is tell you that specific car’s Euro NCAP rating. Yet I reckon most people will only have a vague idea of what that means – there’s a chance they may have never heard those eight letters said in that particular order before.

For anyone unfamiliar, Euro NCAP is the independent organisation that has the fun-sounding task of crash testing new cars and providing us with clear, reliable information about how safe they are. It’s been doing this for almost 30 years, yet I don’t know anyone who has bought a car because of how well it has performed in Euro NCAP’s brutal battery of crash routines. 

The reason I think it’s important to at least ask about a car’s safety score is that, recently, Euro NCAP published its report on the new MG3. It’s a car that’s been on sale for more than a year, and one that I lived with for six months when it was part of the Auto Express long-term fleet.

I really liked the affordable and efficient supermini. However, during Euro NCAP’s 31mph frontal offset crash test, the seat latch in the MG3 failed. Apparently, this is something the expert testers had never seen before in all their decades destroying cars for our benefit.

In case you somehow think that’s not a big deal, Aled Williams, programme director at Euro NCAP, said about the MG3’s results: “It is troubling to find a car on sale in 2025 with a fundamental weakness in its seat latching mechanism, an essential part of the car’s occupant restraint system. The fault has been reported to Type-Approval authorities so consideration can be given as to whether a recall should be issued. 

“For that reason, we would recommend consumers consider alternatives to the MG3.” That kind of information feels fairly vital – and the sort of thing people might want to know before signing on the dotted line. I would have covered a lot less than the 3,000 miles I did in our MG3 had I known – or at least I’d have done them more cautiously. 

Thankfully, it’s quick and easy to find a car’s safety rating on Euro NCAP’s website or in our library of in-depth reviews, which also include details of exactly what safety kit each car features. Something we’d wholeheartedly recommend you do.

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