The biggest, most agile and newest OnStar-equipped vehicle you can afford.
That is the short answer to the popular question: "What is the safest vehicle I can buy?"
It's impossible to be any more specific about the safest vehicle for you unless I know as much as you do about your driving habits, including how many people ride along with you (and what there ages are), your precise physical dimensions, where you live, what kinds of roads you use and, most importantly, the precise circumstances of the life-threatening situation you will be involved in.
All this is necessary to picking out the safest vehicle for you because each and every crash or other life-threatening situation is different, thanks to a stream of variables so long it can't be outlined.
This all means that you have to consider the reality of your driving habits when you buy a vehicle, and adjust your requirements accordingly.
But biggest, most agile and newest OnStar-equipped vehicle you can afford is an excellent place to start because these attributes go a long way toward delivering the safest all-round vehicle for anyone.
Agility could help a vehicle avoid some of those life-threatening situations, and not crashing is the best solution by far. Features that promote agility include an engine powerful enough to get you out of harm's way quickly, anti-lock brakes, good tires and stability control.
The larger a vehicle is, the greater protection it provides its occupants during a crash that couldn't be avoided, and this applies to the amount of space it provides around the people it carries as well as its weight. You want to be as far away from another vehicle, or a wall, or a poll or whatever as is possible, and you want as much weight as possible to keep the forces of the crash from reaching you. On this point, it must be mentioned that all five-star vehicles are not created equal. Each vehicle is measured against other vehicles in the same weight class, so if a five-star subcompact crashes into a five-star truck, the people in the subcompact are much more likely to suffer injuries than the people in the truck. In a crash, bigger is almost always better.
Having OnStar in a vehicle ensures that help gets to you as quickly as possible, and that is a lot more of an issue than you probably appreciate. But people who work in emergency services (including many trauma doctors) would love to see crash notification systems in every vehicle since it would save many lives. A crash-notification system calls for help even if you can't, and sends it to your precise location. There are some aftermarket crash-notification systems available, but they aren't as good as one that's built into your vehicle because their signal strength is weaker and they won't work where cell-phones don't work. GM's OnStar system is by far the most sophisticated crash-notification network in the world, and works where no others will because of the strength of its communications signal. Mercedes has a decent crash-notification system as well, by the way, but that's pretty much it.
Thanks to the ongoing focus on safety, it's fairly safe to say that newer vehicles are better equipped to protect you than older cars since the modern ones have the benefit of more refined crash protection design and extra safety features.
As for those extra safety features, the list grows longer with every model year. Many of them (like brake assist) might help you avoid a crash, and as mentioned that is the best scenario. Others, like airbags above the side windows, might reduce the injuries you sustain in a crash. How many of them you can afford is up to you. If you ever do get into a hazardous situation, you'll probably wish you spent that $1,000 on anti-lock brakes and stability control rather than an upgraded stereo system.
That is the short answer to the popular question: "What is the safest vehicle I can buy?"
It's impossible to be any more specific about the safest vehicle for you unless I know as much as you do about your driving habits, including how many people ride along with you (and what there ages are), your precise physical dimensions, where you live, what kinds of roads you use and, most importantly, the precise circumstances of the life-threatening situation you will be involved in.
All this is necessary to picking out the safest vehicle for you because each and every crash or other life-threatening situation is different, thanks to a stream of variables so long it can't be outlined.
This all means that you have to consider the reality of your driving habits when you buy a vehicle, and adjust your requirements accordingly.
But biggest, most agile and newest OnStar-equipped vehicle you can afford is an excellent place to start because these attributes go a long way toward delivering the safest all-round vehicle for anyone.
Agility could help a vehicle avoid some of those life-threatening situations, and not crashing is the best solution by far. Features that promote agility include an engine powerful enough to get you out of harm's way quickly, anti-lock brakes, good tires and stability control.
The larger a vehicle is, the greater protection it provides its occupants during a crash that couldn't be avoided, and this applies to the amount of space it provides around the people it carries as well as its weight. You want to be as far away from another vehicle, or a wall, or a poll or whatever as is possible, and you want as much weight as possible to keep the forces of the crash from reaching you. On this point, it must be mentioned that all five-star vehicles are not created equal. Each vehicle is measured against other vehicles in the same weight class, so if a five-star subcompact crashes into a five-star truck, the people in the subcompact are much more likely to suffer injuries than the people in the truck. In a crash, bigger is almost always better.
Having OnStar in a vehicle ensures that help gets to you as quickly as possible, and that is a lot more of an issue than you probably appreciate. But people who work in emergency services (including many trauma doctors) would love to see crash notification systems in every vehicle since it would save many lives. A crash-notification system calls for help even if you can't, and sends it to your precise location. There are some aftermarket crash-notification systems available, but they aren't as good as one that's built into your vehicle because their signal strength is weaker and they won't work where cell-phones don't work. GM's OnStar system is by far the most sophisticated crash-notification network in the world, and works where no others will because of the strength of its communications signal. Mercedes has a decent crash-notification system as well, by the way, but that's pretty much it.
Thanks to the ongoing focus on safety, it's fairly safe to say that newer vehicles are better equipped to protect you than older cars since the modern ones have the benefit of more refined crash protection design and extra safety features.
As for those extra safety features, the list grows longer with every model year. Many of them (like brake assist) might help you avoid a crash, and as mentioned that is the best scenario. Others, like airbags above the side windows, might reduce the injuries you sustain in a crash. How many of them you can afford is up to you. If you ever do get into a hazardous situation, you'll probably wish you spent that $1,000 on anti-lock brakes and stability control rather than an upgraded stereo system.