Vehicles should be evaluated against other vehicles within their own size and weight class. Results do not indicate the extensive damage a small vehicle may sustain in a crash with a large vehicle. In addition to crash tests, there's also real-world experience to consider when shopping for a safe vehicle. HLDI tracks insurance claims about injuries, repair costs and vehicle theft on more than 100 million vehicles. Insurance losses vary widely among individual vehicle models.
Large vehicles perform better than small vehicles.
The CarGuide includes injury, collision and theft ratings for 1996-99 vehicles. It takes several years of actual road loss experience before a vehicle is considered statistically valid. These results are generally good indicators of the experience of current versions of the same vehicle models. However, manufacturers periodically redesign their passenger vehicles. In these cases, the experience of earlier models with the same name may not predict the experience of newer designs.