If you’ve got a Fiat 500 sitting in your garage right now, then…well, my condolences. Not that it’s a bad car, or…actually maybe it is, since it was just rated as the least safe car on the road. Or more specifically, the worst vehicle for protecting passengers from injuries. So who earned the #2-5 spots?
2. Kia Rio 5 (LX and SX)
3. Toyota Corolla L
4. Mitsubishi Lancer Ralliart
5. Mercedes-Benz CL600
Ouch, a Benz CL600, which also happened to earn the title of the most expensive vehicle to insure in 2013, and would cost you a hefty $130,000 to buy, is one of the least safe cars for passengers.
So is this a fair and comprehensive list? No, not really. Insure.com used some of the data from the study on the aforementioned The Most (and Least) Expensive Vehicles to Insure in 2013 study and found the cars with the highest rates for Personal Injury Protection (PIP) and Medical Payments (MedPay) in the 2013 model year. So, while it’s not a comprehensive – and some would even say fair – list, it could be counted as indicative.
They did also include a list of the five best vehicles for protecting passengers from injuries, or again more specifically, those with the lowest PIP and MedPay premiums, and here’s what they came up with:
1. GMC Sierra 1500 (SLE, SLT and Work Truck)
2. Porsche Cayenne
3. GMC Yukon (Denali and SLT)
4. GMC Sierra 2500 SLE
5. GMC Terrain SLE1
So what does that teach us? Nothing we didn’t already know. As kids we learn that the more mass something has, the more energy and momentum it carries, or to put it more gently: “big thing crush small thing.”
But is this list useful? If you’re looking for a small car or giant truck, yes. But for the rest of us? I don’t want to buy a hulking $40,000 14 mpg-getting pickup truck or an overpriced and snooty German SUV just to feel safe. What if we want a sedan? A compact hatch? A crossover? All those cars fall somewhere in the middle; exactly what this list leaves out. A breakdown of the cars in each segment might be more useful in making a buying decision.
