05-30-2020, 01:10 PM
I think physics explains a lot. I just went from a Chevy Impala--a very big car--to a Kia Telluride, which is a mid-size SUV. My auto-insurance dropped by 20-30%. The Kia is tricked out with all the latest, greatest, Safety equipment, but the Impala was no slouch in that category. It's pretty clear that bigger vehicle with the better sight lines is safer.
As for minivans being the safest, there's no such thing as a "mini" minivan (maybe the Mazda 5 might be considered a compact minivan), whereas there are compact and even subcompact SUVs. Years ago, we owned the first Honda Odyssey, which was an extremely compact minivan. I'd loved that vehicle, and would have kept it for many years if it hadn't been involved an accident while parked.
It is a bit of an arms race. If everyone drove small cars, the death rate in small cars would be much lower. However, Everyone is driving bigger vehicles. Looking around the parking lot at work, only one out of six vehicles was a car. You actually add risk by driving smaller vehicles.
As for minivans being the safest, there's no such thing as a "mini" minivan (maybe the Mazda 5 might be considered a compact minivan), whereas there are compact and even subcompact SUVs. Years ago, we owned the first Honda Odyssey, which was an extremely compact minivan. I'd loved that vehicle, and would have kept it for many years if it hadn't been involved an accident while parked.
It is a bit of an arms race. If everyone drove small cars, the death rate in small cars would be much lower. However, Everyone is driving bigger vehicles. Looking around the parking lot at work, only one out of six vehicles was a car. You actually add risk by driving smaller vehicles.