The safest cars for teens

Jennifer Stockburger, a mother of two children, worries about the safety of her 16-year-old son who just started driving with a learner's permit.

"When you've got a young driver, it's worrisome enough because you've got this struggle," she said. "They have a higher propensity to be in a crash. So your gut tells you to put them in the biggest vehicle you can find. But we want them to avoid the crash altogether, so you need to get them in a safe vehicle they're comfortable handling and braking."

Stockburger, a mechanical engineer and director of operations for the Consumer Reports Auto Test Center, played a key role in developing the first list of its kind: a directory of the safest, most reliable and affordable used vehicles for teenage drivers. The project was a collaboration between Consumer Reports and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).

"We had the IIHS list, based on crashworthiness and our list based on performance and reliability," she said. "Vehicles for crashworthiness may not have performance or reliability. This is the Goldilocks combination for cars that perform well, have better than average reliability, safety features critical for young drivers, crashworthiness, and they're all under $20,000."

That means, for example, easier emergency handling performance and better braking distances. This merges information from Consumer Reports surveys of owners of hundreds of thousands of vehicles who report crashes involving their cars with additional safety data from IIHS.

The nonprofit IIHS monitors data involving insurance claims, while Consumer Reports tracks owner satisfaction and reliability, in addition to doing independent safety studies.

"We're positioning these cars as great for young drivers because they won't break the bank," Stockburger said. "But these cars are good for anybody. It's a well-rounded used car that clicks all the boxes."

"That's the struggle," Stockburger said. "The temptation is to put your child in a Chevrolet Suburban because of its mass. Physics says if they're in a crash they'll benefit. But this combination of factors on our list, this is also about helping teens avoid the crash."

Both Ford Motor Co. and General Motors made the list, while Fiat Chrysler Automobiles did not.

"The best new vehicles make the best used vehicles," said GM spokesman Jim Cain. "The engineering and testing that GM engineers put into the structures, air bags and electronic safety systems pay dividends for the life of the vehicle, not just the first or second owner. It's important to give young drivers every advantage."

Ali Reda, a top car salesman nationally who works at Les Stanford Chevrolet Cadillac in Dearborn, Mich., said that many of his customers with teenage drivers are drawn to the Chevy Equinox.

"They're easy to manage, easy to drive, especially for a first vehicle," he said. "The size is manageable for young drivers. You look at issues like parking in tight spots at school or the fact that it doesn't accelerate very quickly."

No sports cars made the list of 65 used vehicles that range in cost from $5,300 to $19,600, the report noted. Excessive horsepower is not a desired quality here. Vehicles under 2,750 pounds also were eliminated. The biggest, heaviest vehicles were excluded because they can be hard to handle and have increased braking distances, the test team said.

Reliability is another key factor, because parents often want the car to last a long time and not leave anyone stranded on the side of the road.

Toyotas appear most frequently on the list, followed by Honda, Hyundai, Mazda, Subaru, Ford, GM, Kia, Volkswagen, Nissan, Audi, BMW and Volvo.

"Toyota was very early in equipping vehicles with electronic stability control, which is a huge safety feature," Stockburger said. "It helps correct the trajectory of a car in an emergency maneuver, like during a skid."

These are areas, she explained, where less-experienced drivers might lack knowledge or judgment of how to best manage a crisis behind the wheel.

Toyota was delighted to do so well in the new survey. "Safety is paramount in the design, engineering and production of all Toyota products," spokesman Curt McAllister said.

The list of recommended used vehicles that fit the criteria of safety, reliability and affordability is divided into "best" and "good" categories. The "best" list excludes vehicles with higher-than-average insurance claim rates under medical payment or personal injury protection coverage, adjusted for driver age and other factors, the report said.

"Injury claims provide another window onto safety in the real world and may capture things that crash tests don't," said David Harkey, president of IIHS.