Informed for Life

Top 5% Safest Vehicles

These vehicles represent the top 5% based on safety rankings and evaluations:

Criteria for the Safest Vehicles of 2024

To be in the top 1% safest vehicles sold in 2024, the vehicle must meet the following criteria: Earn a IIHS Top Safety Pick+, score ‘good’ in the updated moderate overlap front test, score ‘good’ in the headlight test, score ‘good’ in the pedestrian front crash prevention test, and have a vehicle class (a combination of type, weight, and size) with a demographic adjusted driver death rate below the average as based on Charles M. Farmer's 2023 paper.

To be in the top 5% safest vehicles, we also allow for a score of ‘moderate’ in the pedestrian front crash prevention test and only require that the vehicle class risk be no more than 20% higher than average.

Finally, we do not include vehicles with incomplete crash test data. With good options that have complete data to choose from, why guess?

Note: The IIHS runs an amazing testing program, but over 30% of all vehicles sold in 2024 earn a "Top Safety Pick." In one sense, this represents the amazing progress in vehicles safety, however their ranking remain too broad and imprecise for consumers looking for a truly safe car.

Recent Innovations in Vehicle Safety

Since our last ranking standard, several innovative advancements have emerged, allowing us to better predict which vehicles provide superior protection for families.

One critical development is a deeper understanding of the relationship between vehicle size, weight, and classification in relation to fatality rates. While heavier vehicles once offered a strong protective effect, recent safety innovations have diminished this advantage. Now, the primary safety factor is vehicle type—for example, SUVs tend to be safer than cars— with weight playing a role, as long as it is not in the lowest or highest classification. Source.

Another key consideration is the recognition of headlight ratings. Research shows that a vehicle with good-rated headlights is associated with a 5% reduction in crashes compared to those with only acceptable ratings, underscoring the importance of visibility. Interestingly, headlights may have a greater impact on safety than small overlap front crash ratings, which have demonstrated only a 1% improvement when moving from acceptable to good ratings. Source 1, Source 2.

Recent updates in crash test protocols have also enhanced safety assessments. The IIHS moderate overlap front crash test now evaluates the second row of seats, using dummies representing a small woman or a 12-year-old child to better account for the safety of all passengers. Additionally, research on B-pillar intrusion has provided valuable insights into structural integrity during collisions. Source 1, Source 2.

While useful data for researchers, we feel that historical driver fatility rates are poor data to use in order to predict future vehicle safety. There are three main reasons for this. First, different vehicles attract very different demographics, which in term have very different driving behavior. This driving behavor is a major component of realized risk. It is a very difficult problem to tease appart the risk contribution of drivers vs. innate car properties. Second, this data is historical and all ready out of date for most vehicles. If you're interested, the IIHS published a good discussion of their findings. And finally, focusing just on driver fatality rates doesn't capture what we actually care about. Crash tests are now designed to evaluate the safety, not just fatality risk, but also risk of serious injury, for passengers including dummies designed to simulate children sitting in the 2nd row.

Looking ahead, we anticipate further advancements in crash testing, including the introduction of the Front Crash Prevention 2.0 test , which aims to refine current standards. While the NHTSA’s crash tests have become somewhat outdated, a newly published roadmap from November 2024 outlines plans to update their testing procedures. We will closely monitor these developments to ensure our rankings reflect the latest safety innovations. Source.

Older Vehicle Ranking

The old Informed for Life method for ranking the safest vehicles involved several criteria: vehicles needed to have better-than-average Vehicle Weight Compatibility, a 5-Star Overall rating from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), meet Top Safety Pick criteria by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), have a NHTSA side-impact rating of 5-Stars, a rollover rating of at least 4-Stars, and a vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention system rated at least 5 points by IIHS. Vehicles were evaluated for model years 2011–2022 and categorized into four groups based on their safety ratings: Safest (1%), Reduced Safety (19%), Least Safe (35%), and Indeterminate Safety (45%) due to incomplete data.

Vehicle Weight Compatibility, assessed through the Multi-Vehicle Crash Factor (MVCF), considered the driver fatality rate relative to a vehicle's class and weight compared to the average driver fatality rate for all passenger vehicles in multi-vehicle crashes. The weight of a vehicle compared to one it collides with is a significant factor in head-on crashes, but crash test ratings did not consider size or weight, requiring separate assessment.

However, this Informed for Life method is now outdated due to advancements in crash test technology and new research on vehicle safety. Modern safety evaluations incorporate more comprehensive crash test simulations and updated data on vehicle dynamics, occupant protection technologies, and real-world crash outcomes, providing a more accurate assessment of a vehicle's safety performance. These advancements have enhanced our understanding of vehicle safety beyond the metrics used in this older method.

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Email: informedforlife@bestmail.us