Projo Cars Blog

With gasoline prices having settled past $3 a gallon and increased talk about global warming, one of those darling little fuel-efficient cars like the Smart Fortwo, Toyota Yaris or Honda Fit may seem more attractive than ever. But are they safe? asks The New York Times.

Knowing for sure is an enormously and perhaps hopelessly complex task. One problem is human ingenuity. People find so many ways to crash that one can’t test for all of them. Then there are variations in engineering. Also, cars of different sizes attract drivers of different ages, different levels of skill and different regard for self-preservation.

Some side-impact crash tests done by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety have indicated that although there can be exceptions to the bigger-is-better rule, fatality statistics show that, over all, small cars are more dangerous.

Occupants of the smallest cars are about 51 percent more likely to be killed in a crash than those in midsize or large cars, according to 2006 fatality figures analyzed by the insurance group.

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