IMHO, two rules when considering a car's passive safety (its ability to protect you in an actual collision);
1. Mass ALWAYS wins (you cannot change the laws of physics)
2. The newer the car, the safer it is.
5th Gear (on Foxtel) have done a number of real world crashes on their program to highlight car safety. Some of crashes they have done;
A) head-on between an early 90's Volvo 940 and BMW 5 series each travelling at 60 mph. Conclusion - neither driver would have survived despite the size and safety features of each car.
B) Smart car front on into a 10 tonne (? - it was BIG) concrete barrier at freeway speeds. Amazingly there was no penetration into the cabin despite the short front overhang of the Smart, and the little car managed to move the entire concrete barrier. Conclusion - despite the lack of cabin intrusion, the occupants would have died due the massive organ deceleration / g Forces. They also smashed a Barina (Opel Corsa) and got a worse result - the cabin was demolished.
C) Late 90's Renault Espace (3 star NCAP) offset head on collision with a new model Renault Espace (5 star NCAP) at around 30mph (?). Both had driver's airbag, but the ability of the newer car to absorb the impact and still retain an intact cabin (these are Tarago type cars) meant no injuries for the driver of the newer car, whilst the older car driver's injuries would have been life threatening.
D) Pajero t-boning an early 90's Honda Civic. The Civic driver's door that took the impact ended up touching the inside of the passenger door (the 4WD basically drove right through the cabin), and it highlighted the danger of 4WD's raise height in that their chassis is at shoulder height (and alot higher than a smaller car's chassis).
I'm under no delusion that a mini is not the kind of car I would like to be in in an accident. However I haven't bought it for its safety features (my daily car has all those for transporting the family), and for the amount of kms I plan to do in it I'm confortable with risk. On the topic of risk, there is no car that is absolutely safe. Nothing in life is risk free, and you just have to weigh up what risks you want to take as part of living life. That's why I chose to give up riding motorbikes. /Rant
