| Safety has to be one of the top priorities for anyone | | | | and strikes the car with the right of way. A Volvo |
| contemplating to buy a car. But the news about cars | | | | XC90 SUV, going 30 mph, crashed into the driver's |
| lately is related with driving fast than with driving | | | | door of a Volvo S40 sedan as it rolled forward at 15 |
| safely. Only five cars on the market boasts of | | | | mph. After some time, journalists investigated the |
| perfect crash-test scores, but 14 cars on the market | | | | crash up close. The airbags were steaming and the |
| possess top speeds of 202 mph or higher. | | | | XC90's interior emanated the horrifying smell of an |
| Constructing safe cars instead of flashy ones might | | | | electrical fire. |
| be a too poor choice to make business sense. | | | | But Volvo executives claimed that had a person been |
| As if to high lighten the mutual exclusivity of fun and | | | | in the S40, protected by side airbags and curtains, he |
| safety, no sports cars enter the list of the safest | | | | or she would perhaps have experienced bruises or a |
| cars on the market. All five cars featured in the list | | | | fractured rib to think of the worst, but likely would |
| are sedans, comprising Ford Motor's (nyse: F - news - | | | | not have been hospitalized. At that moment, the |
| people ) Crown Victoria, a vehicle often brought out | | | | danger of constructing cars with below-average |
| as a taxi and close in spirit to a hearse, and two | | | | safety was clearly known to the observers. |
| other dead weights derived from it, Mercury's Grand | | | | There are lots of possibilities in the auto business for |
| Marquis and the Lincoln Town Car . | | | | companies other than Volvo to consider safety a top |
| The safest cars don't exactly appeal to a common | | | | selling point. But only a few are performing like that. |
| buyer, and automakers don't seem to have any | | | | Four of the five cars in the list are created by Ford |
| immediate plans to unleash more of them to market. | | | | and its subsidiaries; one is a Honda, from its luxury |
| The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's | | | | Acura division, included at that list. |
| (NHTSA) crash-test scores for 2006-model cars (the | | | | All vehicles enlisted showed the highest rating (five |
| model year is underway) have shown five cars with | | | | stars) in each crash-test category. The cars included |
| perfect marks. Among the 2005-model cars, the | | | | were those NHTSA tested in each of its available |
| same five cars from 2006, were the only ones in | | | | methods: two frontal-impact tests, two side-impact |
| 2005 to yield perfect scores. | | | | tests and a rollover-resistance test. To be fair, the |
| Quite expectedly, there is a Volvo, the S80 sedan, | | | | list's shortness can be partly attributed to the fact |
| included in the five safest cars. But one may wonder | | | | that NHTSA does not crash-test every car on the |
| why Volvo is the only automaker that customers | | | | market, nor does it involve each car it tests through |
| naturally link with safety, despite the efforts of | | | | each test it possess. |
| Honda Motor (nyse: HMC - news - people) and | | | | It tries to test a broad range of vehicles, but agrees |
| DaimlerChrysler's (nyse: DCX - news - people) | | | | it does not have enough resources to do every one. |
| Mercedes-Benz subsidiary to popularize heavily their | | | | The cars not tested in 2005 include Chevrolet's |
| cars' safety features. | | | | Corvette from General Motors (NYSE: GM - news - |
| Two years back, Volvo invited journalists to a tour | | | | people), the Phaeton from Volkswagen and Audi's |
| of its Car Safety Center in Gothenburg, Sweden. The | | | | A6. Even though this is the case, the reality is that, |
| program had a crash-test demonstration--a simulation | | | | safety is not currently a top requirement for most |
| of what takes place when a driver runs a red light | | | | car manufacturers around the world. |