Are small cars safe to drive?
Since people are trying to buy smaller cars to be more fuel efficient, the discussion of whether the smallest cars are as safe as bigger cars arises. According to detnews.com, smaller cars still aren’t as safe as bigger cars, but they are getting more safety features and becoming safer to drive. Automakers are putting more safety features such as side air bags and reinforcing the sides with high-strength steel.
Due to the better safety features on the smallest cars, the death rate has dropped in the last decade to 106 per million vehicles in 2006 from 165 10 years ago. Now, these small cars are now considered safer than small pickup trucks, where there are 116 per million vehicle deaths. Even though the small cars are fairing better than small pickup trucks, they are still significantly higher than the largest sedans, with 41 deaths per million cars and even higher against the biggest SUVs, with 33 deaths per million vehicles. “There’s an advantage to being larger and heavier,” said Adrian Lund, president of Arlington, VA based Insurance Institute, an organization funded by auto insurers. “Those are the laws of physics, and they still hold.”
Today, 14 of 17 top selling small cars are getting good frontal crash test ratings. In 1997, none of these cars received any good ratings. You do not have to compromise and lose safety features and overall safety with going with a more fuel efficient smaller car. Smaller cars have many and some all of the safety features of larger cars. You have to do your research, but you can find smaller cars with all the safety you want as well as good gas mileage too.