to what extent is safety important for you when buying a new car?

[vannah]

we cant decide between the Nissan Note (like it because we are used to nissans, its spacious, 'feels right', affordable)

and a Volvo s40, (its very safe and just about affordable now, but not sure how affordable in the long run- are parts expensive?)

Not sure if Im being sensible or overly paranoid in considering the volvo (we dont feel comfortable in it and its a bit big for me, plus not spacious internally) because Im worried about:

1.some horrendous crashes Ive seen in the new area we've moved into

1. Paranoid since seeing the 'texting while driving safety film'

3.not very relaxed about DHs driving despite driving courses to 'improve'...

any thoughts?
thankyou

Well, safety is always important but you can end up goung round and round in cirlces getting too worked up over minute differences between cars.

After price, safety is the most important factor for us when buying a car. DH does a lot of research and we buy the safest car we can possibly afford. Obviously it needs to be something practical too, but safety is our main concern.

I am looking to buy a new car at the moment - my main concern in emissions (for tax reasons only).

Then performance and fuel consumptions.

The make of it.

What it looks like.

Price.

Safety comes down the bottom of the list frankly.

thanks for your thoughts...

Safety has got much more important to me recently (currently looking for another car), but isn't the be all and end all. The car has to be 'right' in lots of other respects too. Dh was in a spectacular crash just before Christmas (thankfully no dcs in the car) and I was in a very scary near crash with the dcs so it is certainly in our minds now. Before then I'd merely have rejected a car with an awful safety record rather than positively look for one with a good one, iyswim.

I'm not familiar with either of those cars, but I would go for the Nissan in your position.

If you feel more comforatble driving it, then you will be safer as you will be less likely to have an accident in the first place. If you are continually stressing about the volvo being too big/not feeling comfortable, that's not good for your state of mind whilst drivng.

thanks.The thing with the Nissan is that its safety ratings are good/ok- (euro NCAP) whereas the volvo is brilliant. I dont know whether being 'safe enough' - ie nissan, is enough. It is for DH, he says its a safe enough car - but in the volvo id have almost 100% peace of mind.

mamight and mrsjohnderee -what are you driving then with safety in mind?

Subarus. One with a 5 star rating, one with a 4. Dh crashed the one with a 4 (an Impreza - dh's I hasten to add) in the recent snow and ice. It span through 180 degrees going down a steep road, fell down a steep bank, and crashed into trees but didn't crumple (and dh was fine). The body work was badly damaged though and took 2 months to repair. He has fallen out of love with it (and I never liked it in the first place) so we're in the process of selling it.

Safety is my primary concern

Gulp. What an accident- will show this post to DH as he seemed to think driving in the ice/snow this year was 100% safe and pleasant.
looking up subarus...thankyou again

If you are concerned about ice and snow you should get 4 wheel drive - they are not all tanks. Some saloon type cars are 4 wheel drive.

My DH also has a Subaru Impreza, which unlike MrsJohnDeere, I actually love! It makes driving a bad weather much more comfortable than in many other cars, we've never had a problem with it, and Subarus are very reliable vehicles. I can happily drive it.

(on the flip side I have a 4 seater convertible that we take the kids in, which probably doesn't come too high on the safety metrics...!)

Safety wasn't on my mind at all last time we bought .
Was thinking specs (like seats, sliding doors), price, fuel, mileage, condition...

I guess safety would be more important if we used the car a lot, but mostly we manage to cycle/walk places.

As it is we managed to buy a death trap! But only because it needed urgent repairs -- I am on the brink of suing dealer about it .