This illusion of safety u are refering to I’m not exactly understanding…if I’m sitting at a redlight with cars in front of me in a suburban with 4 people in it, a speeding pickup comes up from behind and rams me, I would assume that the extra four feet behind my passengers will help cushion the blow plus the fact of it having a full frame not a chincy little unibody of the prius where the passengers would be almost on the rear glass of the car. I’m assuming that would be safer because not in all conditions can u manuever out of harms way and sometimes you’re just gonna get hit, in addition the extra ground clearance of the suburban helps if you get hit by a truck because it puts the blow up higher where its meant to be hit not in say the back window of a prius which does get 46 mpg compared to the 22 of the 5.3l power on demand of the suburban but the extra agility u say youll have doesnt help much if theres no way out of the situation even with the prius’s massive 76 crank horsepower…but this is just my take on why people think they are safer in an SUV than in a compact car. :doh: and yes I realize my comparison is of a large SUV and a small car but those were the two compared earlier