How to Choose a Safe Car for Your Teen

If you are shopping for a car for your teenager, choosing a safe vehicle is probably paramount in your mind. As you probably know, crash statistics show that teens are not only involved in more crashes than any other age group. Teens cause more crashes than more mature drivers. If you are planning to buy a vehicle for your son or daughter, it's well worth the time required to do some serious research on the safety of the vehicle you are considering. Here's how you can go about this important task.

In the USA there are two primary crash testing and rating organizations. First is the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), part of the Federal Department of Transportation. Second, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety is a non-profit funded by insurance companies. Each does extensive crash testing and rates vehicles based on the likelihood of injury for drivers and passengers involved in different kinds of crashes.

At NHTSA vehicles are rated for front and side crashes, and are given rollover ratings. NHTSA does not rate vehicles for rear crashes. Front crash ratings are broken into driver and passenger ratings. Side ratings are broken into front seat versus rear seat. Each vehicle test results in a total of five ratings:

• Front crash – driver
• Front crash – passenger
• Side crash – front seat
• Side crash – back seat
• Rollover

The ratings are indicated by "Stars," as follows:

• 5-Star: 10% or less chance of serious injury
• 4-Star: 11% to 20% chance of serious injury
• 3-Star: 21% to 35% chance of serious injury
• 2-Star: 36% to 45% chance of serious injury
• 1-Star: 46% or greater chance of serious injury

You can research vehicles by make, model and year by visiting www.safercar.gov, a NHTSA web site. There you can easily compare one vehicle against another and even watch crash test videos.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety rates vehicles as Good, Acceptable, Marginal or Poor. Each vehicle is rated for front, side and rear crashes. You can search for ratings on vehicles at the Institute's web site by clicking the "Vehicle Ratings" link. Like the NHTSA site where you can search by make and model, the Institute's site also lets you compare across makes by type of vehicle. This feature allows you to easily compare, say, all "Midsize moderately priced cars." Visit www.iihs.org to research the vehicle you're considering.

Size and Type of Vehicle Do Matter

According to the Institute, the gross vehicle weight is an important factor to consider as well. Smaller, lighter cars simply don't stand up to crashes as well as heavier vehicles. It's recommended that you shop for a passenger car weighing between 3,500 and 4,500 pounds. While light-weight cars save gasoline, those under approximately 3,500 pounds are not going to provide the level of safety you want your teen to have. Further, pickup trucks and SUV's -- usually built with a center of gravity high off the ground -- tend to roll over more easily. Most experts recommend a passenger car in the preferred weight range, that is not a high performance model. "Big and Slow" might not be what you teen wants. But safety is more important than image every time!