Shopping for Safety in a Car

If you want the safest vehicle out there today, join the Army. An Abrams tank won’t tip over even if you’re fording a river and it can take a hit from a  car as well as a missile.

But they get really lousy gas mileage (worse than a Hummer), they don’t fit in a parking space, and you won’t be able to reach the drive-thru window at Starbucks.   So if a tank isn’t on your car-shopping list, there are other things you can look for to gain a safety edge. First is size—bigger is better. Big vehicles tend to be heavier, so they’ll take a hit better than a small car. “We can’t repeal the laws of physics,” says Russ Radar, a spokesman for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), one of the agencies that runs crash tests.   Big vehicles, however, can be too big. Rollover accidents are especially dangerous for passengers, and vehicles with a high center of gravity (like pickups and sport utility vehicles) are more prone to tipping.

“Typically, large cars and minivans have the lowest death rates in real-world crashes,” Radar said. “They have the benefits of size and weight—which protects people in a crash—and are less likely to roll over than SUVs or pickup trucks.”

Big vehicles also tend to have big blind spots, especially to the rear. Increasingly common are rear cameras or sensors that detect if there is someone or something behind you. That’s especially helpful when you’re trying to back up in a crowded parking lot.

One of the best ways to survive an accident is not to get in one. That’s where traction and stability control systems can help. The IIHS and the National Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA), the folks who give out the stars in crash tests, think so highly of the systems that they recommend electronic stability controls (ESC) be standard equipment in every car sold in America, saying it could save 10,000 lives a year.

On a curve or slippery road, it’s easy to lose control of a vehicle. With ESC, a computer matches your car’s path with where you intended to go by monitoring steering, throttle, and brakes. When needed, it can apply the brakes to individual wheels and cut the engine power to avoid skids and rollovers. This will give the driver the ability to maneuver out of trouble.