(Newser)
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Driving a Toyota Yaris? Be cautious: At 28.5 injury claims for every 1,000 of the vehicles insured, the car boasts the worst rate of any vehicle, says a new study. The runner-up was the Suzuki SX4, with 26.6 injury claims per 1,000 insured vehicles, the Los Angeles Times reports. The Chevrolet Aveo, Mitsubish Galant, Kia Rio, and Nissan Versa and Sentra were all among the poorest scorers; small cars tend to fare the worst in such analyses, says the group behind the insurance industry study.
On the opposite end of the spectrum was the Porsche 911, which saw just 4.5 injury claims per 1,000 insured. Chevy's Corvette and Silverado, Jeep's Grand Cherokee, and the Lexus LX 570 were runners up. Such studies are important because "injury claims data show something that crash test results can’t, and that’s the role that vehicle size plays," says a rep for the industry group. Because crash tests are typically conducted using a fixed barrier, their "results are comparable only among similar vehicles." Injury claims better reflect the real world, says the rep.
