The safety of a vehicle follows its ability to maneuver safely and hold up during a crash. To accomplish this, I recommend at a minimum having ABS brakes, front/side impact airbags, stability control, and child safety seat compatibility. For the first time in the history, Consumer Reports was happy to report that there was at least one vehicle that reached the top safety standards in every single class of passenger vehicle this year. Most all manufactures show dynamic performance in head on collision safety, which means that it is side and rear impact scores that you should be most aware of. A few of the top choices of economical cars with top scores at all crash points were the Honda Civic/Fit, Scion xB, Ford Escape, Saturn Vue, Toyota Corolla, and Volkswagen Rabbit.
