http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/2005/10/21/toyota-leastsafe-cars-cx_dl_1024feat_ls.html?boxes=customquote:
The least-safe cars on the market are like the least-safe neighborhoods in a big city: affordable, but not pretty.
With an average base price of $15,323 and no prices higher than $19,555, the six least-safe cars on the market companies such as Hyundai, Kia and Suzuki. Some models from these brands--which are hardly for social climbers--satisfy bargain hunters but require them to take their chances with personal safety. Hyundai's Elantra, Kia's Optima and Suzuki's Forenza sedans--like the other vehicles in the slide show--achieved ratings of "poor," the lowest possible, in two of three Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) crash tests (all the cars received their failing grades on the side- and rear-impact tests).
The 2006 model year is young. Not all new cars have crash-test scores available, but many do, and the slide show features the six with the worst crashworthiness.
We typically consult the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)--and we recommend car shoppers do too. But for a list of the least-safe cars, we felt the IIHS would be a better source, because it seems less sparing of its worst marks than NHTSA. Most cars in NHTSA's crash tests achieve ratings of three stars or higher on tests in which five stars is the top rating, but the IIHS does not hesitate to hand out ratings of "poor" when cars merit them. NHTSA gives out the occasional sub-three-star rating, but a three-star rating tends to be as low as it goes.
To be sure we were on steady ground in calling certain cars "unsafe," we fashioned our list out of cars that received multiple "poor" ratings from the IIHS. Both a list of cars with only one "poor" rating and a list of cars with one or more three-star ratings from NHTSA would have been unwieldy, with over 20 cars each.
The list of unsafe cars points to two trends. First, the least-safe cars are cheap. However, some luxury cars have subpar crash-test scores. The Jaguar X-Type sedan from Ford Motor (nyse: F - news - people ) and the Infiniti G35 and M model lines from Nissan Motor received one "poor" rating each, which was alarming but not enough to merit placement on our list.
Some 2006-model luxury cars have also had safety recalls already. For example, DaimlerChrysler's redesigned Mercedes-Benz M-Class SUV has been recalled for a faulty power steering system, as has the Cadillac Escalade SUV from General Motors. However, we did not feel that a car with one safety recall was necessarily unsafe, and there is, as of now, no bank of 2006-model cars with multiple safety recalls.
The other trend is that side airbags, though frequently optional, should be mandatory. The IIHS often gives "poor" side-impact crash-test scores to vehicles tested without optional side airbags. Add side airbags in a side-impact test and a vehicle's score can go from the lowest possible to the second highest possible. But some vehicles, such as the slide show's Hyundai Elantra, manage to achieve "poor" side-impact scores despite having standard side bags.
Safety features are like luxury features in cars: the higher your budget, the more of them you will get. For a look at the least-safe cars on the market--and at the correlation between budget vehicles and unsafe vehicles--please follow the link below.
Hyundai Elantra
Base Price: $13,675
Hyundai is moving up in the world, gaining more respectability each year and charging more for its cars. The company's Elantra sedan, however, feels less like a part of the successful, growing Hyundai than a part of the old Hyundai--the Hyundai that was a punch-line for so many years. The Elantra is unrefined and unsafe, and its driving dynamics will not excite you unless you think any car is exciting. But you don't have to be a joyless coupon clipper to gravitate toward the Elantra; you just have to be in search of a reasonable deal, as millions of Americans are. The Elantra provides basic transportation with a price tag that is hard to beat, which is why Hyundai sold almost 100,000 Elantras in America in the first three quarters of 2005.
Kia Optima
Base Price: $16,785
The Optima sedan comes with underpowered engines and much refinement needed in such areas as steering response. The Optima also has poor residual values and, with its 2.7-liter engine, achieves an average fuel economy of 20 mpg overall *, which is pretty bad for a family sedan.
* Source: Consumer Reports
Mazda6
Base Price: $19,555
Perhaps the most refined models on this list, the Mazda6 sedans, hatchbacks and wagons are handsome inside and out and fun to drive.The automotive press loves to endorse the Mazda6 because the nameplate offers a less mainstream, more hip, more sporty alternative to the antiseptic Toyota Camry.
Nissan Sentra
Base Price: $13,680
Another basic, small, unsafe sedan with few charms, the Sentra is what you drive in high school. The two-star rating means that in a typical side crash, a front-seat occupant would have a 21% to 25% chance of an injury that would require immediate hospitalization and could be life-threatening. The Sentra comes with one of the wimpiest engines on the market: a 126-hp, 1.8-liter four-cylinder.
Suzuki Forenza
Base Price: $13,699
There's a reason we don't give Suzuki much coverage in these pages. The company sells three sedans that are just about the same size and have just about the same price: the Aerio ($13,999), the Forenza ($13,699) and the Reno ($13,199)--and the Forenza and Reno have the same disappointing engine specifications (127 hp each). A Nissan or a Toyota will have one such forgettable vehicle in its lineup; what's the point of having three for the same price? Suzuki's slogan for the Forenza is "Have it all." Trust us: this is not as good as cars get.
Toyota Corolla
Base Price: $14,545
We were surprised to find such poor ratings for the Corolla, a car we had thought was in fact one of the market's safest. But the low scores come with caveats. For one thing, since model-year 2004, the Corolla's rear crash-test score has dropped to "poor" from "acceptable," two grades higher. But more importantly, the Corolla on the list is the one tested without optional side airbags. Tested with optional front and rear head curtain airbags and optional front seat-mounted torso airbags, the Corolla's side rating is not "poor," but "acceptable"--the second-highest possible score.
Least Safe: Ford Ranger/Mazda B-Series
Base Price: $15,045
A four-wheel-drive Ford Ranger pickup has a two-star rollover-resistance rating. The government says a model with this rating has a 30% chance of rolling over in a single-vehicle crash.
[ December 28, 2005, 03:31 AM: Message edited by: Audi Junkie ]
