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Gentlemen:

Perhaps you can help me! I have been scouring the Internet and the paper looking for car safety reports and have found it difficult comparing similar-year autos. How does one compare cars?

We have always been Volvo owners because of the safety factors; now we're not so sure if it is the best choice.

My husband is interested in buying a new auto and he is interested in the Volvo V70, the Mercedes E-class and the BMW 5-Series. All 2006 models.

How can I compare these to see which is the safest vehicle? Or is the Audi A6 the safest? I would like some guidance.

Thanks in advance,

Lynne

Vaughan: Oh, Lynne, now you've done it. The theory of relativity would be easier to explain. Safety ratings to me are what the Russians were to Churchill: "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma."

Cato: Very scholarly, Vaughan. But, Lynne, he has a point. As far back as 1996, the U.S. Transportation Research Board recommended that all vehicles receive a single, simple-to-understand safety score -- a kind of summary score. Now that was a good idea.

Vaughan: But Cato, you know that if governments are involved, good ideas are doomed. Our wonderful federal government, for example, crashes cars all the time yet doesn't release any sort of crash test scores at all. What's the point of that? And down in the United States, with all its high-priced government testing, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it has no plans to develop a summary safety score.

Cato: It's definitely not easy to rate vehicles in terms of overall safety; in fact I'd say it's getting tougher. Since 1996 NHTSA has added side-impact scores and rollover resistance ratings to frontal-impact test results. A fully tested vehicle now receives five sets of stars. Five sets! Five sets with the best score being five stars. So for a perfect NHTSA score, a vehicle gets a total of 25 stars.

Vaughan: And now NHTSA is thinking of adding star ratings for brake performance and maybe headlights and whiplash protection, too. That's a lot of categories and a lot of stars to keep track of, especially when you never know what kind of crash you're going to be in.

Cato: And that's why I think Lynne would be very smart to turn to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) for the most useful safety scores.

Vaughan: Cato, you trust the research arm of the auto insurance industry in the U.S. more than big-brother government?

Cato: In the case of safety ratings, the IIHS does some things better -- rating vehicles in tests of high-speed offset frontal impacts, severe side impacts and for whiplash protection. I also like the way the IIHS Web site (http://www.hwysafety.org) explains its methodology.

Vaughan: And there's enough information there that, with a bit of digging, buyers can understand various safety attributes.

Cato: Still, to be fair, NHTSA's Web site (http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/testing/ncap) is loaded with explanations of what the scores mean. And that site also has tire ratings, another useful bit of safety info.

Vaughan: There you are flip-flopping, Cato. Is it NHTSA or the IIHS?

Cato: With me it's 1 and 1A, with the IIHS slightly ahead. I'm giving the IIHS the edge because, unlike NHTSA, the insurance industry folks have somehow managed to come up with a single safety rating - something the government agency hasn't been able to do.

Vaughan: So it's the Insurance Institute over the government, right? The institute does things to help people like Lynne who are baffled by the overload of vehicle safety ratings.

Cato: Yes, after assessing 43 vehicles -- 16 small cars, 24 mid-sized cars and three large cars -- the IIHS combined separate ratings for front crashes, side-impact crashes and head restraints into a single rating for each of the vehicles.

They said their selections represent the best safety overall of all 2006 cars.

Vaughan: And if you go by this system, Lynne, the Audi A6 really shines.

The A6 earned a "silver" rating among large cars. The other silver cars, by the way, are the Audi A3 and A4, Chevrolet Malibu, and the Volkswagen Jetta and Passat.

Cato: The gold for large cars went to the Ford Five Hundred, with more golds for the Saab 9-3, Subaru Legacy and Honda Civic sedan.

Vaughan: Just so we're clear, to get the gold designation, a car must have good ratings in all three categories. A silver award denotes good ratings for front and side impacts and an acceptable head-restraint rating.

Cato: So let's help Lynne with her 2006 cars. The Volvo V70 has five-star ratings for both front and side impacts and a four-star rating for rollovers from NHTSA. That's 24 out of 25 stars.

The IIHS doesn't have a rating for the V70, which is odd. Not even for headrest protection, although all the other Volvos that have been tested score really well for rear crash protection.

Vaughan: So, Lynne, the V70 is a safe choice, but not one rated by the IIHS, which has the tougher tests compared to the NHTSA. The IIHS gives the BMW 5-Series a good rating for frontal impact and an acceptable rating for rear impacts -- whiplash protection, in other words. But the IIHS hasn't tested the 5-Series for side impacts.

Cato: The Mercedes E-class scored exactly the same result as the BMW 5 from the IIHS -- good for frontals, acceptable for rear impacts.

In NHTSA testing, the E-class is worth 23 stars -- four stars each for frontal impacts for driver and passenger, five stars each for side impacts front and rear, and five stars for rollover protection.

Vaughan: Lynne, what does all this mean? The A6 is best overall based on the available test results. But honestly, the other three are pretty safe cars, too.

Cato: Okay, let's throw one other very important factor into the mix -- price. The V70 is the least expensive of the bunch and has pretty impressive safety scores. On safety and price I'd go with the Volvo.

Vaughan: Lynne, have we cleared up the riddle, the mystery or the enigma?

Jeremy Cato and Michael Vaughan are co-hosts of Car/Business, which appears Fridays at 8:30 p.m. on Report on Business Television and Saturdays at 2 p.m. on CTV.

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Specifications

2006 BMW 530xi station wagon

Wheelbase: 2,886 mm

Length: 4,856 mm

Width: 1,846 mm

Height: 1,491 mm

Engine: 3.0-litre inline six, DOHC

Output: 255 hp at 6,600 rpm/220 lb-ft of torque at 2,750 rpm

Drive system: AWD

Curb weight: 1,750 kg

Fuel economy (litres/100 km): 12.1 city/7.8 highway

Base price: $72,800

Specifications

2006 Mercedes-Benz E350

station wagon

Wheelbase: 2,854 mm

Length: 4,850 mm

Width: 1,822 mm

Height: 1,481 mm

Engine: 3.5-litre V-6, DOHC

Output: 268 hp at 6,000 rpm/258 lb-ft of torque at 2,400 rpm

Drive system: AWD

Curb weight: 1,810 kg

Fuel economy (litres/100 km): 12.8 city/8.8 highway

Base price: $79,550

Specifications

2006 Volvo V70R station wagon

Wheelbase: 2,755 mm

Length: 4,710 mm

Width: 1,804 mm

Height: 1,462 mm

Engine: 2.5-litre inline five, DOHC, turbocharged

Output: 300 hp at 5,500 rpm/295 lb-ft of torque at 1,950 rpm

Drive system: AWD

Curb weight: 1,677 kg

Fuel economy (litres/100 km): 14.7 city/8.5 highway

Base price: $61,620