Reader question:

Do sports utility vehicles get the safe car discount?

Greg

Um. No

It’s true that SUVs might be safe for the person that’s driving them. After all, they’re big and strong, and most of the newest ones come with plenty of safety features, enough to make any car insurance company happy. However, your company can’t just think about you when it’s deciding on rates for safe driver insurance plans. If you get into an accident in which you are at fault, then the other driver in the situation is going to come after them for a claim payment, and that’s where the safety of your SUV ends.

SUVs can protect their passengers very well, but they wreak havoc on other cars. A lot of this has to do with their size. However, this isn’t the only thing involved. A critical factor in the results of a collision with an SUV is the SUV’s bumper. The reason that the bumper can cause problems is because it is on a different level than are the bumpers of smaller cars. Bumpers exist so that they an take the brunt of an impact in a head on collision with another car. However, in the case of a crash between an SUV and a compact car, the SUVs bumper isn’t going to touch the other car’s bumper–instead, it will be aimed towards the window where the passengers and driver are, causing more damage to the vehicle and more of a chance of injury and loss of life to the people.

SUV bumpers are put on them mainly for show, as they have no real protective qualities. Even if a truck and an SUV got into a crash with each other, the bumper would just collapse because it doesn’t have enough power behind it to absorb the force of the other vehicle.

Getting in SUV will mean that you pay more for your insurance premium, not less. SUVs are considered part of the higher risk pool of cars, even if they do well on safety crash tests. If you want to buy this kind of car, don’t expect to get a safe driver insurance plan. Expect to pay.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.