When choosing your first new car, safety should be at the top of your list…
Safety has developed at an incredible pace in recent years, with better crash performance built into car bodies and improved technology embedded to avoid a crash occurring in the first place. Many of these advances have found their way into the nine contenders for carsales’ Best First Car 2022, most notably with driver assist safety systems. However, once you drill into the detail there are big differences between these cars with how much support they offer the driver and other occupants in the car.
There’s nothing more important than safety, particularly for an inexperienced driver who’s looking to purchase their first new car.
Thankfully, the nine hatchbacks in contention for carsales’ Best First Car 2022 are all fitted with what we consider is the minimum level of safety equipment.
This includes at least six airbags – dual front, front side and head-protecting curtain airbags for front and rear occupants – as well as a reversing camera, an anti-lock braking system, electronic stability control, autonomous emergency braking (AEB) and forward collision warning (FCW).
AEB and FCW are relatively recent features that come under the broad heading of advanced driver assist safety systems, and they’re among the best for helping avoid common nose-to-tail crashes.
That said, there are more sophisticated functions within these broadly defined systems, such as automatically braking to avoid a collision with not only other cars but also cyclists and pedestrians.
Further developed systems will also warn and brake when oncoming traffic approaches from the side.
How do our Best First Car contenders stack up in terms of offering such advanced functionality?
As you might expect, there’s a mixed level of competence.
For example, the Subaru Impreza 2.0-iL, Toyota Corolla Ascent Sport and Toyota Yaris Ascent Sport are the only models to have an automatic braking system for when turning at intersections, while all models on test except two – the Mazda2 Pure and Suzuki Swift GL S Plus – can recognise cyclists and brake accordingly. Thankfully, all of them will recognise pedestrians.
With rear cross traffic alert, the two Toyotas, the Subaru and the Kia Rio S don’t offer this feature, handing an advantage to the Hyundai i30 Active, Kia Cerato S, the Mazda2 and Mazda3 Pure models and the Suzuki Swift.
The Mazda3’s system also includes auto braking, rather than simply sounding a warning, if it senses a rear-end collision is imminent.
The fitment of rear-view camera is a given, but the added benefit of both front and rear parking sensors is only found on the Kia Cerato. The Hyundai i30, Kia Rio, the two Mazdas and the Suzuki have rear sensors, while the Subaru and the two Toyota models miss out entirely at this level.
Looking forward and only the two Mazda cars and the Toyota Corolla have LED headlights with their superior, crisper lighting the technology affords.
Blind spot monitoring is a welcome innovation, but it’s only fitted to just over half of our contenders – it’s missing on the Hyundai i30, Kia Rio, Subaru Impreza and Toyota Yaris.
Similarly, a driver fatigue monitor is not included on a variety of models on test: the Mazda2, Subaru Impreza, Suzuki Swift and the two Toyotas.
Lane departure warning (LDW) and lane keep assist (LKA) are found on most of the models here, but not on the Kia Rio. The Suzuki Swift has a lane warning function but won’t actively intervene via LKA.
Tyre pressure monitoring is fitted to most of the small cars on test – Hyundai i30, Kia Cerato, Mazda3 and Subaru Impreza – but not the Corolla and none of the light hatchbacks.
In terms of airbags, the Toyota Yaris has no fewer than eight throughout the cabin, including twin-airbag protection between the two front occupants, making it the standout in this department.
Four others have seven airbags, including protection for the driver’s knee: Hyundai i30, Mazda3, Subaru Impreza and Toyota Corolla.
The Yaris and the Mazda3 are also the only two cars with secondary collision mitigation, which automatically applies the brakes to prevent or mitigate a subsequent impact when a vehicle has been involved in a collision.
The Toyota Corolla also deserves special mention for being the only model with misacceleration mitigation, which reduces the chance or severity of a collision if you mistakenly hit the accelerator when stationary or at low speeds.
In overall terms, our best guide to the level of safety a car offers, and how it performs in the event of a crash, is the independent assessment conducted by ANCAP.
All cars tested here carry a maximum five-star ANCAP rating, which is the minimum requirement for their inclusion in Best First Car.
However, it’s important to note that ANCAP’s testing standards have changed over the years, so the date when a car was tested is relevant. A car that received five stars in 2015 may not rate as highly if tested in 2022, so we place a bigger emphasis on those assessed more recently.
Significant changes to ANCAP protocols occurred in 2017 and 2020, the latter introducing much stricter real-world requirements.
Our table below shows the ANCAP ‘date stamps’ for each of our Best First Car contenders (along with other safety features), where only the Toyota Yaris was tested under the latest criteria.
Also note that the Kia Cerato S only has a five-star ANCAP rating when equipped with the optional Safety Pack ($1000), which we’ve done in this case.
Hyundai i30 Active
ANCAP safety rating (year): Five-star (2017)
ACC/Stop-go: Yes/Yes
AEB/FCW: Yes (interurban)
Airbags/driver knee/centre front: 7/Yes/No
Blind spot monitoring: No
Lane departure warning: Yes
Lane keep assist: Yes
Rear cross traffic alert: Yes
Rear/360-degree camera: Yes/No
Parking sensors front/rear: No/Yes
Kia Cerato S (with Safety Pack)
ANCAP safety rating (year): Five-star (2019)
ACC/Stop-go: Yes/Yes
AEB/FCW: Yes (interurban)
Airbags/driver knee/centre front: 6/No/No
Blind spot monitoring: Yes
Lane departure warning: Yes
Lane keep assist: Yes
Rear cross traffic alert: Yes
Rear/360-degree camera: Yes/No
Parking sensors front/rear: Yes/Yes
Kia Rio S
ANCAP safety rating (year): Five-star (2017)
ACC/Stop-go: No/No
AEB/FCW: Yes (interurban)
Airbags/driver knee/centre front: 6/No/No
Blind spot monitoring: No
Lane departure warning: No
Lane keep assist: No
Rear cross traffic alert: No
Rear/360-degree camera: Yes/No
Parking sensors front/rear: No/Yes
Mazda2 Pure
ANCAP safety rating (year): Five-star (2015)
ACC/Stop-go: No/No
AEB/FCW: Yes (city)
Airbags/driver knee/centre front: 6/No/No
Blind spot monitoring: Yes
Lane departure warning: Yes
Lane keep assist: Yes
Rear cross traffic alert: Yes
Rear/360-degree camera: Yes/No
Parking sensors front/rear: No/Yes
Mazda3 Pure
ANCAP safety rating (year): Five-star (2019)
ACC/Stop-go: Yes/Yes
AEB/FCW: Yes (interurban)
Airbags/driver knee/centre front: 7/Yes/No
Blind spot monitoring: Yes
Lane departure warning: Yes
Lane keep assist: Yes
Rear cross traffic alert: Yes
Rear/360-degree camera: Yes/No
Parking sensors front/rear: No/Yes
Subaru Impreza 2.0i-L
ANCAP safety rating (year): Five-star (2016)
ACC/Stop-go: Yes/Yes
AEB/FCW: Yes (interurban)
Airbags/driver knee/centre front: 7/Yes/No
Blind spot monitoring: No
Lane departure warning: Yes
Lane keep assist: Yes
Rear cross traffic alert: No
Rear/360-degree camera: Yes/No
Parking sensors front/rear: No/No
Suzuki Swift GL S Plus
ANCAP safety rating (year): Five-star (2017)
ACC/Stop-go: Yes/No
AEB/FCW: Yes (interurban)
Airbags/driver knee/centre front: 6/No/No
Blind spot monitoring: Yes
Lane departure warning: Yes
Lane keep assist: No
Rear cross traffic alert: Yes
Rear/360-degree camera: Yes/No
Parking sensors front/rear: No/Yes
Toyota Corolla Ascent Sport
ANCAP safety rating (year): Five-star (2019)
ACC/Stop-go: Yes/Yes
AEB/FCW: Yes (interurban)
Airbags/driver knee/centre front: 7/Yes/No
Blind spot monitoring: Yes
Lane departure warning: Yes
Lane keep assist: Yes
Rear cross traffic alert: No
Rear/360-degree camera: Yes/No
Parking sensors front/rear: No/No
Toyota Yaris Ascent Sport
ANCAP safety rating (year): Five-star (2021)
ACC/Stop-go: Yes/Yes
AEB/FCW: Yes (interurban)
Airbags/driver knee/centre front: 8/No/Yes
Blind spot monitoring: Yes
Lane departure warning: Yes
Lane keep assist: Yes
Rear cross traffic alert: No
Rear/360-degree camera: Yes/No
Parking sensors front/rear: No/No
Keyword: Best First Car 2022: Safety