What is the safest car to have that's also not very expensive?

[LocalNetter]

What is the safest car to have that's also not very expensive?
For motorway/dual carriageway driving etc. in case an incident were to happen?

Thanks a lot so far everyone. @NanTheWiser Is the air conditioning really good on a Volvo C30 to keep the car like a fridge in the summer? Forgot to mention this feature but my current car doesn’t have any air con and it can be difficult in the summer

Skoda Citygo

Look at Ncap but also, go as new as possible. The newer cars have better safety features in terms of avoiding accidents and this has really changed over the last ten years or so. So I would try to look at cars no older than 2010 or so.

Consider reliability as well. This is not so much about performance in an accident it is about preventing the situation where you break down and get stuck on a hard shoulder which is a pretty dodgy place to be for any length of time, especially if you have kids.

And if you do have children under 5, put them in rear facing car seats if at all possible/practical. For children aged 5+ and under 150cm, a well rated full size high backed booster, not a backless one and not a graco. If you don't want to do rear facing for younger ones, at least make sure their seats are properly installed as per instructions and you tighten the harness as much as you can every time :) And adjust your own seatbelt and seat headrest correctly.

LocalNetter, the air con is very good, but I had to have a complete new unit a few years ago, which was a bit pricy. But that can happen with any car. Obviously with a 10 years old car, things do start to go wrong, but Volvos are very reliable and rarely go wrong.

Thanks everyone :)
@NanTheWiser ah how much was the air con to fix? Thanks for the info :) does yours have parking sensors/aids?

In your price range I would be looking at a Ford Focus. Very safe and very popular so parts are cheap and easy to come by.

all modern cars are pretty safe - seatbelts, crumple zones, airbags (which will blow your hearing and kill your children, but hey - safety..) etc etc. buy something about 10 years old without tinted windows and with fewer gadgets to go wrong.

Almost all car crashes are caused by drivers. Mechanical failure causing a crash is very rare now, mostly only things like blown tyres due to wear, and that is also driver fault.

radio off, phone off, children silenced. Good luck with the last.

@LocalNetter, I think it was about £900, IIRC, so not a cheap fix, I must admit. No, no parking aids or sensors, model was too early for those (maybe later models have them).

My fiesta has a 5 star safety rating

Thanks everyone :)