Reader question:
I’ve got two vehicles on my mind. One is the Honda Odyssey, the other is a Volvo SUV. Now, the SUV comes with more safety features than the Honda, but it also is more likely to do things like roll over. Is the good of the safety features enough to cancel out the bad of the roll over potential?
Julia
It depends on you.
To be honest, both of the cars are pretty good, and you might have to take a lot more into consideration when making your decision than just the safety features. Although safety features are very important and should be a big part of your decision, sometimes it is just very difficult to compare the safeness of one car to the safeness of the other. The best way to figure out if it is worth it is to check out statistics about the most dangerous and safe cars on the road, as well as to check the car crash test result for the new car that you want to see how it performed.
You might have to consider the amount of seating space. Some people really do need a minivan that can seat seven passengers, like the Honda you mentioned. However, if it is something that you don’t really need or would only use on occasion, you might not want to let that be a big part of your consideration process.
The Volvo SUV is probably the best way to go. Both the Honda and the Volvo are bigger cars, which come with their own risks, but the Volvo sounds like it suits your needs better and, as you didn’t actually mention anything about the Honda in your question, it seems like it’s the one you really want, anyway. The roll over potential is a problem, but many Volvo SUVs, like the XC90, come with stability control which keeps the car from rolling over for something you do. It can’t prevent all eventualities, but it does a great job correcting human error.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.