[align=center]Updated:2007-06-05 16:14:04[/align][align=center][/align][align=center]2007 Safest Cars[/align][align=center][/align][align=center]By DAN LIENERT & MCF `Space : )[/align][align=center][/align][align=center]
If you're going to get creamed in a car, might as well make it an Audi A4.

That's because it's one of the safest cars on the road, according to data we consulted in forming this year's list of most sound autos.
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In Pictures: 2007 Safest Cars

Joining it at the top? Acura's RL and Saab's 9-3: All three get the highest-possible marks for safety from three of the four most respected sources of such data: Consumer Reports, the Department of Transportation, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) and the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI).
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More Autos Stories[/align][align=center][/align][align=center][:-]
More great articles from Forbes.com: [/align][*][align=center]In Pictures: Smart Cars for Teens[/align][*][align=center]In Pictures: Top 2007 Gas Guzzlers[/align][*][align=center]In Pictures: Value-Losing Cars[/align][*][align=center][/align][align=center][/align][align=center][/align][align=center][/align][align=center][/align][align=center]What's more, all three vehicles carry CR's highest possible rating for accident-avoidance capabilities. The Acura RL also has perfect crash-test scores from both the Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and from the IIHS. The A4 and 9-3 have perfect IIHS crash-test scores, as well as substantially better-than-average (in this case, lower-than-average) frequencies of insurance injury-claim filings, according to HLDI.

Behind the Data
To earn a spot on our list, a vehicle had to have at least two of the following:
[/align][align=center][/align][align=center]· CR's highest possible rating for accident-avoidance capabilities.
· Perfect NHTSA crash-test scores across the board.
· Perfect IIHS crash-test scores across the board.
· A substantially better-than-average (i.e. lower-than-average) frequency of insurance injury-claim filings, according to the HLDI.

We only looked at cars that the NHTSA and the IIHS have tested in all of their available categories: for NHTSA, two frontal-impact tests, two side-impact tests and a rollover-resistance test; for the IIHS, front, side and rear tests.
[/align][align=center][/align][align=center][/align][align=center][b]The organizations we used as sources do not test every car on the market, nor do the crash-testing agencies put each car through every test they have. The sources we consulted try to assess a broad range of vehicles, but they lack the data or the resources to do all of them. For example, 2007 models not yet tested by NHTSA include Audi's A8 sedan and Porsche's 911 sports car.

The difference between a good crash-test rating and a poor one is significant: A five-star NHTSA frontal-crash rating means a chance of serious injury of 10 percent or less in a head-on collision in which each vehicle is going 35 mph. A one-star rating means a chance of 46 percent or higher. NHTSA defines a "serious injury" as one that requires immediate hospitalization and may be life threatening.

The IIHS conducts a frontal-offset crash test in which the vehicle strikes a defor

 

[align=center][/align][align=center]"You can't escape the responsibillity of tomorrow by evading it today"[/align][align=center]- Abe Lincoln & Space -[/align][align=center]
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[/align][align=center][/align][align=center]Losing SteamCars 2007
Our list of the eight current-model cars with the worst residual values consists of autos that have the lowest possible ratings for predicted depreciation from Consumer Reports and Automotive Lease Guide, an authority on residual value. CR's lowest predicted reliability rating is a designation of "much worse than average." ALG's depreciation ratings are based on a five-star system, in which a one-star rating is the lowest. After compiling the list, we contacted Kelley Blue Book to see precise projected residual values for each car. [/align][align=center]For each car, we have listed its predicted residual value after two, three and five years of ownership.[/align][align=center]The first two figures will be most important to people who lease their cars, as the average leased car gets returned after two or three years. For people who buy, the five-year figure is the one to study, as the average buyer sells a vehicle after five years.[/align][align=center]The difference between a high and low residual value is significant.[/align][align=center]An average vehicle will retain 35% of its value after five years, according to Kelley, meaning that a $20,000 new car today will only be worth $7,000 after five years. But Kelley says a car with excellent residual value, such as a new Mini Cooper, will retain over 50% of its value after five years. To contrast that with the bottom of the pack, a Crown Victoria will hold only 22% of its original value after five years.[/align][align=center]Sometimes a specific factor causes a low residual value. For example, General Motors' (nyse: GM - news - people ) $32,000 Rainier SUV is on our list, and Buick spokeswoman Debbie Frakes said in a recent e-mail message that that's because "we've announced that Rainier ends production in May."[/align][align=center]"A lower depreciation rating is typical for vehicles at the end of their lifecycle," she said. This might seem to negate the supply/demand argument, but the Rainier is going out of production because it has not been popular. Last year, Rainier sales declined 17% to 13,000 units.[/align][align=center]Sam Locricchio, a spokesman for DaimlerChrysler's (nyse: DCX - news - people ) Chrysler Group, thinks the $27,000 Dodge Durango SUV is on our list "based on consumer attitudes related to fuel prices."[/align][align=center]"For example," he wrote in a recent e-mail message referring to escalating gas prices, "recent fuel cycles can cause--as we've seen in the past--consumers to react more positively toward cars versus larger vehicles such as SUVs."[/align][align=center]In response to our inclusion of Dodge's [li