The top five safety features to look for in a new car

When it comes to buying a new car, what’s the first thing you look for? A good deal on the price? Its appearance? Whether it’s fuel efficient? For many people, safety is the number one priority, especially if the vehicle will often be used to transport their family and friends from A to B.

The Department for Transport reports that there were 2.9 million vehicles registered for the first time in Great Britain in 2018 and thankfully, the modern car now comes with a range of safety features as standard.

And those improvements have seen a significant reduction in the number of fatalities from road accidents between 2004 and 2018, from 3,221 to 1,784. Manufacturers such as Volvo have been leading the way when it comes to advances in car safety technology and by leasing with ZenAuto you can obtain one for a perfectly reasonable monthly cost, so what are some of the features that could help to make your driving experience safer and all the more enjoyable?

Lane assistance

This is especially useful for motorway driving, where you are perhaps most likely to lose concentration during a long journey. If that does happen and you begin to drift across into the next lane, the car will sense that, alert you and also correct your steering to ensure you stay within the lines.

Automatic braking

If you’re approaching the back of a queue or a line of cars that has stopped suddenly, you may not be slowing down at sufficient speed to avoid going into the rear of the vehicle in front. But this feature will calculate your velocity as well as the distance to the next car and, if required, sound a warning and deploy the brakes automatically.

Cruise control

Long drives – especially on the motorway – can prove wearisome and we can often begin to feel fatigue in our right foot as we continually press the accelerator for miles on end. By turning on your cruise control, you’ll be setting a designated speed for the car to travel, simultaneously avoiding tiredness and ensuring you won’t exceed the limit.

Parking sensors

Few people enjoy parking in tight spaces, especially if we have a watching audience or a car full of passengers. The fear of bumping into another vehicle, a wall or a bollard means we can get nervous when squeezing into a bay or a parallel space, but parking sensors will let you know when you’re coming close to making contact with another object.

Adaptive headlights

These are particularly useful for driving along winding country lanes in the dark, as the headlights will move in relation to the direction the car is travelling, rather than shining straight ahead. This enables us to see more clearly, even around the sharpest of bends, and give us greater warning about any oncoming traffic.