Look at automotive safety as hedging your bet. You may be the world's safest driver. Are you willing to bet that everyone else on the road is? While ultimately, what makes a Safety Car  or unsafe is the attention of the driver, and the training of the driver, there are features on cars that make them statistically safer on the road.

NO.10  Honda Civic

Year after year, the standard Honda Civic 2/4-door seems to dominate the lower price car field with all-around excellence in performance, handling, ride, comfort, fit and finish, design, reliability, resale value and the kind of overall gas mileage that comes close to some of the hybrids but not its own model which is EPA estimated at 49-51. It seems that with this price , you get what you don't pay for.

NO.9  Chevrolet Malibu

Chevrolet a domestic listed twice (see above) in the safest, lowest priced cars list? Well, why not, It's about time Detroit not only caught on but started to catch up. In this case, the catching up of the base model Malibu is part old Chevy with its uninspired interior and clattery 4 and 6 cylinder engines and part new, with increased quality of ride and handling, its ingenious quasi-wagon Maxx model and an available higher performance SS model.

NO.8  Nissan Versa

Nissan's approach to the small business wars trades more room and comfort for a bit less but still good gas mileage, a bit more comfort for a bit less handling, and a 1.8 litre engine quite close to bigger sister Nissan Sentra's base 2.0 litre 4 plus the increasingly popular CVT tranny as an option. Curtain air bags like many here are standard.

NO.7  Toyota Yaris

Already offering the $14,000 Toyota Corolla and the $15,000 Matrix, Toyota has undercut itself with the $11,500 (base) Toyota Yaris. Looking like a shrink-dried Toyota Camry this 2 or 4- door toddler's price is more comfortable than its ride. Compensation comes from the smooth-shifting 5-speed (4-speed auto opt.) which helps this whelp get a combined 33mpg and still accelerate fairly well.

NO.6  Hyundai Sonata

Hyundai, whose original farm-team, error-prone vehicles basically struck out in this country, has become a serious player in the starting lineups of many new car shoppers by, at first playing it NHTSA and IIHS safe and then by starting to hit home runs with its team of products. The Hyundai Sonata 4-door sedan is as slick as a triple play and as agile as a shortstop but can be a bit noisy and only has an ERA, er mpg, rating of about 21 combined.

NO.5  Chevrolet Cobalt

The Chevrolet division of GM is fielding two head-to-head "import" (some are made or assembled in the US) warriors; the Daewo-manufactured Aveo which fits this category in price but not in crashworthiness and the 2/4 door Chevy Cobalt which is , um, middle of the road in ride, performance, roominess and handling. However there is an available 2.0 litre supercharged 205 bhp engine that transforms Little Nell into a minor-league bat from hell.

NO.4  Subaru Impreza

The bipolar Subaru Impreza sedan comes either as tame, domesticated family transportation or as the WRX wildass race car Q-boat which can sink sports and muscle cars twice its price. But for a list of cars under 20k, we're talking the run of the, um, mall model here. No weak sister however, the family model Subaru Impreza boasts decent acceleration, excellent handling and ride but in a size that's just a tad tight for stretch-out room or larger size cargo.

NO.3  Volkswagen Rabbit

Maybe, whenever the name Golf was mentioned in VW board room meetings, a quoram would answer, "Why, yes," and head for the first tee. Maybe not. Anyway, the VW Golf has suddenly been as discarded as a 30 over par scorecard, replaced with the oldie, and to the Volkswagen volk, goodie, name VW Rabbit. No hare-raising performer, the new-look 2/4 door VW Rabbit is a buttless and (base 2.5 litre, 150hp) gutless VW Jetta clone but does offer the tops in handling and comfort of that model. For street scat there is also an optional 2.0 litre, 200bhp turbo.

NO.2  Audi A6

The Audi  was close to making the cut last year, but it was hampered by a merely "Acceptable" performance in whiplash protection. With improvements to the Audi's seats, the A6 and smaller A4 earned the Insurance Institute's Top Safety car Pick award.

NO.1 Volvo v90

Volvo's reputation has been built on safety, so Volvo's absence from last year's Insurance Institute Top Safety Pick list was surprising to many consumers. The fact is, however, that many companies now make very safe cars, not just Volvo. Ford's Swedish luxury brand makes the cut this year with its XC90 SUV.

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