What You Need to Know About Luxury Vehicles and Safety

We avoid deeming a vehicle "safer" than another because there are innumerable unquantifiable factors that contribute to a vehicle's overall safety. That said, we're comfortable calling the luxury vehicle category one of the safest. Real-world safety data don't separate the vehicle from the type of driver, and luxury drivers tend to be more careful than most. But crash tests and other factors reflect that the luxury designation itself raises the crashworthiness of the vehicle itself, as explained below.

Jump to a section below:

• Best of the Best: Top Crash-Test Scores
• Features to Look For
• New and Upcoming Safety Features
• Why Are Luxury Vehicles So Safe?
• How About Luxury SUVs?

Best of the Best: Top Crash-Test Scores

As a class, luxury vehicles have the best crash-test ratings. As of the beginning of the 2005 model year, every single model listed in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's three luxury categories and one "moderately priced" category has scored Good in the frontal test, and out of the 35 models this represents, all but two are also rated as Best Picks for frontal impact. (Because side- and rear-impact results are not available for all models, we list the models based solely on their frontal score.)

Features to Look For

• Discs and ABS: Four-wheel disc brakes with an antilock braking system should be available, if not standard, on any luxury vehicle.
  
  
• Electronic stability system: Known by innumerable names, most of which include the word "stability," these computer-based systems brake individual wheels and control the throttle to keep the vehicle on the intended path in low-traction situations. Increasingly, this feature is standard on luxury vehicles; Audi was one of the first with its Electronic Stability Program. It's especially valuable in sport utility vehicles, as it can prevent conditions that lead to rollover.
  
  
• Airbags aplenty: A full set of airbags adds to the category's inherent value and play an important role in its excellent crash-test ratings. Frontal airbags are required on all cars; the side-impact variety are not, but almost all luxury models include them for the front seats, at least in the form of torso-protection bags. (Torso protection for rear seats is less common, in part due to concern over child safety.) Side curtain-type airbags, which cover the side windows and protect the heads of front and backseat occupants, are less common but increasingly included as standard equipment. They're equally important in low-slung cars for protection against taller trucks and in SUVs for protection in a rollover (make sure the SUV's curtains are designed to deploy in a rollover, because not all of them are). In vehicles with three rows of seats, newer models employ curtains that protect all three rows, but you'll want to make sure this is the case before deciding on a luxury SUV.
  
  

The head restraints in Volvo's S60 (pictured) received the IIHS's highest rating — Good — in its rear crash protection test.

• Head restraints: Not simply "headrests" for occupant comfort, head restraints are intended to protect against whiplash injuries, particularly in a rear-end collision. Head restraint design is the latest area of scrutiny now that the IIHS has begun rear-end crash tests. Most of the vehicles tested so far provide inadequate protection, mainly because the head restraints don't extend high enough or aren't close enough to the occupant's head to prevent injury. Exceptions among the luxury cars tested include the Jaguar S-Type, Saab 9-3, and Volvo's S40, S60 and S80. Buyers should look for head restraints — for every seating position — that extend high enough for the tallest likely occupant, and rest, or can be adjusted, close to the head. Better still, active head restraints move forward in a collision to catch the occupant's head and ease it back.
  
  Power-adjustable head restraints, found only in luxury vehicles, may seem a frivolity, but they have a safety benefit: Because their position typically can be stored in a memory along with the seat adjustments, two drivers who share the vehicle will always have the proper head restraint position where they might forget to adjust the manual type.
  
  
• Tilt/telescoping steering wheel: More modest vehicles have manually adjusted steering wheels that infrequently include a telescoping adjustment. A luxury car is more likely to include a power-adjustable steering wheel, and these usually telescope as well as tilt. Both represent safety features: Aside from making the driver as comfortable as possible, the telescoping adjustment in particular helps distance the driver properly from the airbag, regardless of his or her size. The next feature serves a similar purpose.
  
  
• Adjustable pedals: Luxury vehicles aren't the sole domain of power-adjustable pedals, but many models offer them. They serve a similar purpose as the telescoping steering wheel, allowing drivers to distance themselves optimally from the steering wheel without compromising pedal reach. They're especially valuable for shorter SUV drivers. The Lincoln Navigator was one of the first vehicles with them, and the smaller Lincoln Aviator includes them as well.
  
  

Rearview cameras, like the one available in the Lexus RX 330, allow drivers to see things they otherwise wouldn't when backing up.

• Sonar and rearview cameras: Audible park-assistance sonar and rearview cameras mainly protect your bumpers — and anything they might contact — from damage, but there is a safety aspect to them. SUV blind spots seem to be the safety concern du jour because it's possible to back up into reasonably tall things or people. These features are no substitute for reasonable care, but they can help you avoid hitting someone or rolling over your spouse's garden. (If that's not a personal safety issue, we don't know what is.) The rearview cameras are superior, but they usually come only with high-priced optional navigation systems.
  
  
• Headlights: Luxury vehicles bear some of the latest advances in headlight technology. The elementary concept here is that you won't hit something that you can see. When it comes to seeing at night, xenon high-intensity-discharge headlights are superior to conventional incandescents. They are brighter, they cover a wider field of view, and they produce more ultraviolet light, which better illuminates reflective road signs. Swiveling headlights that swing in the direction of a turn are a feature that's long overdue. They're available solely on luxury vehicles, including the Acura RL, newer BMWs, the Lexus RX 330 and select Porsches. The latest feature is headlights that automatically switch between low and high beams by sensing opposing headlights and taillights. They're on the 2005 Cadillac STS and the 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee.

New and Upcoming Safety Features

Automakers tend to roll out their newest safety innovations in luxury models. The next steps in safety involve improvements to passive restraints and further integration of the vehicle's different systems. Preparation is the next frontier, in the form of engineering that helps vehicles better avoid collisions and/or prepares both the vehicle and occupants for an impending crash. Below are a few vehicles whose cutting-edge safety features are available now.

The BMW 7 Series was one of the first vehicles in North America to include knee airbags for the driver, designed to protect the legs and prevent submarining, in which the occupant slides down and forward and likely sustains serious injuries. The 7 Series also has taillights that illuminate brighter when the driver makes a panic stop.

The BMW 5 Series sedan and 6 Series coupe and convertible are the first cars that offer active steering, a system that puts motor-controlled gearing in the steering column between the steering wheel and the rack-and-pinion mechanism. In regular driving, the feature simply varies the steering ratio so the driver turns the wheel less at lower speeds. The safety aspect is that the system, tied to the electronic stability program, can take over and turn the front wheels, say, to prevent fishtailing. This is a more precise and effective action than the common stability system, which must brake individual wheels to change the car's direction.

The Mercedes-Benz S-Class introduced the company's ambitious Pre-Safe system. When the Pre-Safe computer recognizes a panic stop or evasive maneuver, it takes several steps to prepare the occupants for impact: The front seat belt pretensioners tighten the belts. The front seats actually change position if necessary — sliding back and raising the backrest — to position the occupant optimally for impact and prevent submarining. If open, the moonroof closes to prevent occupant ejection in a rollover. Mercedes says all of this can be accomplished before impact in two-thirds of collisions. If the collision is averted, all the aspects return to their prior state. (The belt pretensioners use electric motors so they don't need to be replaced, as conventional pretensioners do, after firing.) The Pre-Safe system, or elements thereof, will appear in other Mercedes models, starting with the 2006 CLS-Class.

The Volvo XC90 was the first vehicle to include a system to prevent impending rollover once it has begun: Roll Stability Control. It has since spread to both of Lincoln's SUVs, the truck-based variety that arguably need it most. This is one of many features and aspects of the XC90 that might not show in crash-test results but almost certainly contribute to better overall safety. For example, where most vehicles include seat belt pretensioners and load limiters for the front seats, the XC90 has them on all seats. The same is true of head restraints, which are both present and meticulously engineered for each seating position. And how many other vehicles are designed to hit a moose with no intrusion into the cabin?

Why Are Luxury Vehicles So Safe?

There are a few reasons for luxury vehicles' excellent crash-test performance: construction, weight and features, though not necessarily in that order.

The Mercedes-Benz S-Class, the company's largest sedan, weighs in at more than two tons.

• Construction: Luxury manufacturers have the freedom to build extra structural protection into their cars. For decades, Mercedes-Benz cars have been described as being "built like tanks." Like tanks, luxury cars are heavy and expensive to build. Automakers can justify both because they're able to charge more for these models and sell them to a buyer who wants power and doesn't care as much about fuel economy. Where an economy-car buyer would blanch at lower mileage figures, luxury buyers, as a class, look the other way.
  
  
• Weight: Relative weight is not reflected in crash tests because the crashed car hits an immovable barrier. But in a real collision, all other factors being equal, mass is an advantage. As mentioned above, some luxury cars are heavier due to their construction, but even a luxury version of a more modest model is invariably heavier, on average. For example, the Acura TL is based on the Honda Accord, but it weighs roughly 200 pounds more than the heaviest, V-6-equipped Accord. Some of the weight comes from the additional standard features. Quiet cabins also are valued in luxury vehicles, and noise control represents weight. Everything from thicker glass to metal coatings and thick, sand-filled firewalls silence noise while raising vehicle weight.
  
  
• Features: Luxury vehicles are often the first to introduce new safety technology, they typically offer more safety features overall than do nonluxury vehicles, and they're usually the first to include these features as standard equipment. For example, General Motors introduced its StabiliTrak electronic stability system first in a Cadillac, and Audi was the first manufacturer to include a standard stability system in every one of its models.

How About Luxury SUVs?

The IIHS's lack of crash-test data on full-size SUVs complicates attempts to quantify luxury SUV safety versus nonluxury models. But based on the IIHS information we do have, luxury SUVs, on average, seem to post significantly better crash-test results than do nonluxury SUVs. This may be due as much to the vehicle types in the luxury category as to their feature set. Every one of the luxury SUVs the IIHS tested is rated Good and a Best Pick for frontal impact. Five of these nine models were built as luxury vehicles and currently have no affordable counterparts, so there was plenty of opportunity for the manufacturers to bulk them up with less concern about weight and fuel economy. Like the cars, luxury SUVs as a class are packed with the latest safety features, many of them standard equipment.

Rollovers remain a concern, and here the luxury designation definitely pays off. Rollover ratings remain incomplete and generally unsatisfactory, but construction and features suggest lower risk. Except in the full-size class, luxury SUVs are overwhelmingly car-based, a construction that in the past few years has brought us many models with lower centers of gravity and better inherent stability. Many luxury models, both car- and truck-based, include or offer electronic stability systems, which are known to minimize some of the conditions that can lead to a rollover.