VW Beetle a safe bet on the road

The updated VW Beetle has raced to the top of the safety league in the small car sector.

The newcomer - based loosely on the "flower power" car of the Sixties and Seventies - came top in a survey of safety features by Which? magazine.

The £12,380 vehicle has seat-mounted airbags and foam in the doors and rear side panels to reduce injuries from side impacts.

Of 85 models assessed by the watchdog, the £20,000 Volvo S80 was judged the safest. Another Volvo - the S60 - came top in the family car league, while the £7,685 Skoda Fabia took the title in the superminis league.

Head of the table for multi-purpose vehicles (MPVs) was the £17,795 Toyota Avensis Verso.

A spokesman for Which? said: " Car safety is improving every year but some cars do not inspire confidence. The majority of models in our latest batch of mostly smaller cars and MPVs did well in our tests - 10 of the 12 were better than average for their category."

Experts criticised two cars, the Chrysler Neon and Hyundai Accent, saying they had poorly-designed head restraints.