There was a time when almost every American family had a full-size car parked in the driveway, a vehicle big enough to give the kids room to roam while toting a whole bunch of junk in the trunk. Gas was cheap, imported cars were small, and children weren’t required to ride in car safety seats. Ah, the good old days.
Today, the landscape has changed, and dramatically so. Big cars have largely been replaced by SUVs and minivans as the preferred method of transporting family members and their belongings. People who want better fuel efficiency, a lower price tag, or both, buy midsize sedans by the hundreds of thousands. And if someone has a little bit of extra money in their pocket, they often choose to spend it on a luxury badge affixed to a compact or midsize car rather than step up to the comfort and spacious accommodations of the traditional full-size sedan.
That leaves big cars parked on the fringes. That’s a shame, because when it comes to safety, curb weight matters, and heavier vehicles offer better protection against injury in a crash. Plus, big cars frequently offer lots of luxuries in terms of equipment, technology, and interior materials at a fraction of the price of similarly sized, luxury-branded sedans.
To establish this list of the safest large family cars, Vehix examined crash-test data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). Any model with a Top Safety Pick rating from the IIHS combined with a 4- or 5-Star overall test result from the NHTSA made the cut, and we present the five finalists here in alphabetical order.
Up First: 2012 Buick LaCrosse
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