Choosing a sedan often involves prioritizing safety, but navigating vehicle safety ratings can be complex. Understanding these ratings is crucial to selecting one of the Safest Sedan Cars on the market. This article breaks down the Overall Vehicle Score, a key indicator of vehicle safety.
The Overall Vehicle Score is presented as a star rating, summarizing a vehicle’s safety performance. This score isn’t arbitrary; it’s meticulously calculated using injury probabilities from frontal and side crash tests, along with rollover resistance assessments. These probabilities are weighted to reflect real-world crash injury statistics, providing a comprehensive safety evaluation. The resulting score indicates whether a vehicle’s average injury risk is higher or lower than the average risk across all vehicles.
Here’s a breakdown of what each star rating signifies in terms of overall injury risk:
- ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐: Significantly lower than average injury risk.
- ⭐⭐⭐⭐: Lower than average to average injury risk.
- ⭐⭐⭐: Average to greater than average injury risk.
- ⭐⭐: Greater than average injury risk.
- ⭐: Much greater than average injury risk.
However, it’s critical to understand the limitations of comparing Overall Vehicle Scores. Direct comparisons are only valid between vehicles within the same class and with weights within 250 pounds of each other. For example, comparing the safety score of a lightweight sedan to a heavy SUV is misleading due to different vehicle classes and significant weight disparities.
Consider these examples to clarify appropriate comparisons for sedans:
- Comparing a 3,400-pound sedan to a 3,650-pound sedan is valid because they are in the same passenger car class and within the 250-pound weight range. This allows for a meaningful safety comparison between similar sedan cars.
- Conversely, comparing a 3,000-pound sedan to a 4,500-pound SUV is not valid. They are not in the same class, and the weight difference exceeds the permissible 250-pound range, making a direct safety score comparison irrelevant.
When searching for the safest sedan cars, always focus on safety ratings, but ensure you are making comparisons within the appropriate vehicle class and weight categories. This ensures you are evaluating safety on a level playing field, helping you make an informed decision when choosing a safe sedan for you and your family. Understanding these nuances of vehicle safety scoring empowers you to prioritize safety effectively in your next sedan purchase.
