Are SUVs Really Safer Than Cars?

Within people's justifications for buying a crossover or SUV lie a number of questionable points, but one is outright controversial - safety.
So are crossovers and SUVs really as safe as people like to think they are?

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[petermitchell]

SUV's are a menace on the road. They block the view ahead of other REAL CAR users.

[hansc]

SUVs are: much more expensive (to buy and to own), less safe, much heavier, less practical, less agile.
Here’s an example: a Volvo XC60 costs 25, 000 euro more (in my country) than a V60 with the same specs. It weighs 150kg more, it uses 20% more fuel, you pay 20% more road tax (we’re taxed on the car’s weight, among other factors), the insurance is significantly more expensive.
But car manufacturers want us to buy SUVs and cross-overs, because the profit margins on these cars are much higher. And consumers want to believe lies.
The issue with EVs is also that the battery packs are easier to hide in an higher car, so another reason for manufacturers to push SUV and cross-over production/sale.

[jetsons]

Ed, there is a saying over here, "The smarter the cars---the dumber the drivers." Have you ever thought of being a auto shop teacher? How about EV's: Electric vehicles are just as safe as other vehicles for their occupants, but unless we take action their weight will put other road users at risk (iihs) Because of my work I drive a pickup as my only road car, mine is NOT lifted, not a 4x4 and has standard tires. This keeps trucks as safe as possible. Thank Ed for your time and hard work.

[benhooper]

Very well researched argument Ed. I have long accepted that dailying my classics does put me at a higher level of risk - however, I can't help but notice that driving standards in the UK, and SUVs are particularly noteworthy, are pretty abysmal right now. I have done the IAM course and while I admit I often get it wrong, the amount of SUVs I see dawdling around with drivers at the wheel who don't appear in full control is worrying. Obviously, this is just from what I have seen and finding relevant data to support this will be fiendish, but, I am pretty sure I know what I am looking at. Stay safe out there all

[dereksmith]

Very interesting video. Thank you.
One thing that you didn't mention was visibility. Before SUVs were a thing, when I was following a vehicle I could generally see around it or over it to the road ahead. Now with these much bigger vehicles on the road forward visibility is restricted and that is not great.
Couple this with greater safety and more tech in vehicles, it gives the driver much less thought for concentration and diligence.
I certainly give the car in front much more room to give me a chance to see what is happening well ahead.

[johnmull]

Must admit, I prefer estate cars to SUVs. What I really can't get my head around is the current trend for coupe styled SUVs 🤷

[paulillingworth]

I can’t stand SUVs and often the idiots that drive them, I’ve only ever owned normal cars, handle better and actually more spacious, more efficient, look nicer and probably more capable, I always thought the biggest safety factor is safe driving in the first place, I also believe that any SUV or 4x4 had to have crash structure “compatibility height” to normal cars, although normal cars far less likely to rollover compared with an ugly SUV, if I wanted a larger SUV type car I’d buy a “proper 4x4” not one of these 100s of vile things available they call SUVs, my firm belief is drive safely regardless, I fine example of a crash situation, I saw a clip where a Brown Austin Metro was recently written off by being struck by a HGV on a motorway and the driver amazingly survived, however there was another a couple of years ago there was a modern Toyota Hilux struck by an HGV everyone sadly died, proof in the pudding that some of it is luck and depending on situation the car only is part of the story.

[EgroegNosnhoj]

Well articulated Ed! 👍 The extinction of the saloon & hatchback market (as exemplified by disappearance of Fiesta & Focus) by these behemoth SUVs (in the belief by mums-net of increased safety) is worrying, especially when we’ve been forced by ill-informed politicians to transition to an EV-only world (which will add even more weight) creating a vehicle weighing 2.5-3 tonnes., destroying our fragile pot-holed roads even more quickly and will certainly increase the risk of death to occupants of any other vehicle that they hit in a collision (based on physics of higher momentum and longer brake distances). The vicious cycle of needing to increase SUV’s battery size to give decent range, which raises the vehicle weight, requiring an even bigger battery (and so on) is a runaway problem that has no answer. Unfortunately, I sense that we’re on a downward spiral, and am not optimistic that common sense will prevail anytime soon. In addition, this rediculous situation acts as red meat to politicians who (under the Eco banner) are determined to oversee the demise of the car and personal transport.

[proxylum]

In my view you are more likely to have an accident in any modern car because they are full of blind spots due to how wide the A pillars are and how hard it is to see out the back of them with the smaller rear windows and the huge C pillars. Compare with something like a Volvo 240 estate or a Metro for all round visibility or most cars from the 1990s back. My anecdotal evidence is partly from cycling. Thirty years ago I used to cycle in busy rush hour city traffic often at night and never had any near misses but these days it happens regularly that people pull out in front of me in broad daylight because they haven't seen me. They're lovely and safe in their oversized Tonka toys but they're always trying to kill me these days.

[BillyNoMates]

you make a good point.
take for example the Dacia Sandero. It got a 2 star crash rating.
however, looking into the report shows the car actualy fairs quite well in a crash but gets marked down as it doesnt have pedestrian protection, lane assist etc.
So the rating system is a bit of a joke.

Also a 5 year old car with a 5 star rating does not mean the same 5 star rating of a new car today (Euro MNcap changed the rating system a year ago), so how do people compare ?

[warrenny]

Really liked this video. I love going through statistics...it's like reading a story.

Ed, I think you said it best around 5:05 ....that driving style/experience is the biggest factor.

As you also point out, people buy what they want and not always what's most beneficial. One day, crossover/SUVs will be out, and something else will take it's place.

That said, I would rather be driving a manual transmission estate car: the choice of enthusiasts on any continent. 😊😊

[MakerfieldConsort]

Well, I was expecting more SUV drivers to out themselves with petulant comments, but it seems most of us are in agreement on this one. If only that consensus were repeated on the roads.

[nickburns]

You always produce fascinating, well researched videos

[frostwise]

such a great video, i love these ones. great work and great research!

[nakoma]

Not just less safe against pedestrians but passengers and drivers of nonSUV/CUV cars as well. That's not even taking into account the EVs with their porker weights that act like a heavier hammer blow [a whole other safety hazard subject in itself especially when they are ridiculously quick machines in the hands of low skilled drivers].

[Rouxenator]

One of the safest cars I have driven (on South African roads) was a Peugeot 407 coupe. Despite being having a heavy frontend it was sure footed, dodged bad drivers, had amazing ESP and was the first car with knee airbags. Not to mention it looked so much better than boring SUVs.

[colinmacdonald]

Nice to find a youtuber who can speak without mangling the English language!
An SUV you won't roll over is the Fiat Multipla, all the structural strength is in the floor plan, which gives it a low centre of gravity, a wheel on each corner and tiny overhangs makes it handle like Peuguot 205, this one's passing the Elk Test. Of course it was deemed old fashioned by 2010 and consequently scrapped.
If my Fiesta crashes into your Evoque you'll come off best but if either of us go into a tree we both lose and the Evoque is more likely to go "off road".

[RoxhamCottage]

I love small cars... easy to manoeuvre, park and wash. I can reach the whole roof of my Mini. My car holds the road very well, is a good driver in snow. I live in Canada and basically have 4-5 months of solid winter per year, I get along fine with my front wheel drive car. It seems to me a lot of big SUV drivers want to dominate the road, using their size to bully other road users. They very often suddenly realize they need an exit or find themselves in the wrong lane for a turn! 🤨

[FantomLightning]

Love the channel and this is very well laid out as are all your videos. I do have a couple points of issue. I won't touch too much on the pedestrian side of things as I don't have much to say on that matter.

The first regarding the blanket statement of an SUV being more likely to be involved in a crash because of a lack of maneuverability. The moose test is a great example of handling and stability at the edge, while there are SUV failures there are also an exceptional amount able to clear the test at a higher speed than a regular car. Most "SUVs" at this point as you yourself have pointed out are sharing platforms with cars, while they may have slightly raised ground clearance and a higher roof most will only have a slightly higher center of gravity compared to their car counterpart. To simply state that SUVs will handle worse and be more accident prone as a result is too much of an oversimplification. I say that as someone who stepped out of a Saab 9-3 Aero and into an S35 Nissan Rogue (similar but not identical to your second generation X-Trail in the UK). My Rogue has had no issues avoiding any crash scenario I've been put in to by other drivers and has gone above and beyond what even I think should be expected of SUV stability. I couldn't have expected any better even out of my Saab.

I find a lot of people when discussing SUV vs car safety lean a bit too heavily into the past. Even by 2008 where you pull some of your IIHS statistics from here in the US most "SUVS" were in reality crossovers. There's a significant difference when discussing stability of a true body on frame SUV and its safety versus the modern crossovers that are really of discussion here. Body on frame results in a vehicle that is more aggressive in crashes and more likely to kill occupants of the other vehicle, while also not protecting its own occupants as well as a unibody vehicle of comparable size and weight. Which is what originally gave many SUVS the reputation they still carry to this day. Classic body on frame SUVs in the early days were often safer in multi vehicle collisions than cars, but that was down to one simple factor, weight which is the true linchpin in these discussions. When you factored in rollover death rates however they rarely came out ahead of passenger cars, mainly due to not only the roll propensity but the atrocious lack of roof strength of most vehicles pre-2005+/-. With unibody crossover "SUVS" they're going to be practically identical to a car of similar weight in what damage they do to the other vehicle in a crash.

As a point of information for scores not being directly comparable, that goes for any and all crash test ratings. IIHS, EuroNCAP and NHTSA in the US. You can compare certain things, as IIHS makes clear. That would be tests where the weight of the vehicle being struck doesn't factor in to the performance directly. Roof strength (SWR) for rollover, side impact where the vehicle is being struck by a target vehicle, safety system performance (AEB, FCW, RAB and the like). Outside of that they cannot be compared due to the linchpin I mentioned earlier weight. From what I recall IIHS normally recommends only comparing ratings between vehicles with a weight difference of 250 pounds or less. Anything else involving front barrier tests for example will be equivalent to if the vehicle being tested was crashing with a car of the same weight traveling the same speed. There's simply no good way to weight the ratings to give an overall simple comparison unfortunately. Really at the end of the day if you're not talking about pedestrian safety it just comes down to a matter of vehicle weight regardless of SUV or car, given similar safety equipment and structure the heavier vehicle will always win. That's normally but not always going to tilt things slightly into the favor of the SUV. But a large car provides the same danger to occupants of a smaller car that an SUV would. We're likely to see a far greater impact of crash incompatibility with the weight of EVs due to their batteries going forward similar to that of original body on frame SUVS.

At the end of the day I don't think this even deserves the discussion it's given any longer. Weight remains one of the central factors in vehicle safety overall when two cars collide. As for pedestrians SUVS can be made to perform similarly to cars, but I'd prefer to see a complete separation that removes the risk entirely. Elevate all pedestrian crossings so there aren't collisions at intersections and remove bikes to a completely separate and uninterrupted bike lane that keeps them separate from traffic. While additional crash safety to pedestrians isn't a bad thing removing the risk of a 3K pound+/- vehicle hitting a person would be by far my preference. AEB with pedestrian detection is going a long way towards making that a reality without also having to modify infrastructure however.



Hope this doesn't come across as to crazy/rambling or argumentative. Vehicle safety is a large passion and if anything hyperfixation/tism obsession of mine, hence the Saab. So I always try to give as much balanced info as I can. Again love the channel and your content Ed, I may have even become a bit infatuated seeing your love and passion for the Metros lol.

TL;DR Outside of pedestrian safety it's really all about weight these days with how similar unibody cars and crossovers are in most instances. People who argue cars are safer and people who argue SUVS are safer really are both wrong as they're on about as even a playing field as one can get.

[RapideWombaticus]

A very thorough analysis young man. Keep up the great work