Those who spend any time on the road know that accidents are inevitable. Manufacturers make it a point to prepare their vehicles for the worst by building cars that resist deformation and damage from rolling or collision. Airbags are standard on all new cars and companies spend millions of dollars in crash tests to determine how effective these safety features would be in real time.

Starting with the 2008 models, new cars will have their crash ratings prominently displayed alongside their other sticker information. In this way, consumers will not only have the word of the manufacturer that the car they’re looking at is best or safest vehicle on the road, they will have the numbers to back them up.

If you’re one of the many people who will be looking at this crash test information, you can thank the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for making the crash test results readily available to consumers.  They are one of the two major players in ensuring that drivers know just how safe their cars are, the other being the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), a group composed of major insurance companies.

So, just what 2007 releases are the safest vehicles on the road? According to the NHTSA, the Honda Odyssey and Nissan Quest make the grade for minivans, while the Hyundai Sonata scores high among sedans. For those who have the SUV fever, the 2007 Saturn VUE, the Honda Element and the Honda Pilot, and the Hyundai Tucson score five stars in each of the four criteria groups.  Finally, the 2007 Kia Optima scored with both crash ratings groups. It earned five stars for frontal and side impact crash tests conducted by the NHTSA, in addition to getting the “Good” rating by the IIHS for frontal and rear impact tests. The Toyota Camry is another winner with the insurance companies, getting a “Good” rating in front and side impact protection.

For complete test results, please visit http://www.safercar.gov