回复：A good one. Only a few know the importance of TC and ESP

I said that the BMW 5 series is worse than the Yaris for Side Impact (according the results of the IIHS test.) This means that the driver in the BMW will more likely suffer serious injury than the drive of a Yaris when struck by the same vehicle (SUV.)

The BMW may still be safer in other crash conditions, such as head-on collisions. But these represent only a small fraction of real world accidents (about 15% in 2007.) To judge the overall safety of a vehicle, you need to consider the various crash types, the driving conditions, and driver experience and skill.

The BMW might be the safer vehicle overall for some people. I wasn't trying to promote one of these vehicles over the other. My main point was that you can not only look at vehicle size and mass to decide its safety. Good design of vehicle structure, restraint sytems (airbags and seatbelts), and accident avoidance/maneuverability (which can be improved by features such as ABS, traction control, and electronic stability control) are more important than vehicle mass.

Regarding Electronic Stability Control (or VSC,ESP whatever you want to call it), this will be required by federal law on all 2009 SUV's, and on all vehicles by 2012. So even though it may not be a standard feature on some cars now, it won't matter in a few years.