The American government tries to push minicars to the nation thinking of the advantages of the fuel economy. Maybe the owners will not need as much gasoline, but the people will really have to think if they want the safety features offered by little autos.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has held fender bender tests on seven popular minicars. Each auto has gone through four tests at 3 mph and 6 mph. The results were disappointing: five of the participating vehicles received “poor” marks. These cars are Honda Fit, Mini Cooper, Kia Rio, Toyota Yaris. Chevrolet Aveo qualified for “marginal” and Smart Fortwo was the only one rated “acceptable”.

Minicars are the cheapest on the automobile market, but the damages of some of them in the crash would take one third of their price which makes the owner really think whether to fix it or buy a new one. Smart Fortwo has done much better than others at the test because it has prepainted plastic body panels which are cheaper if the replacement is necessary than the same bumper parts on other minicars.