It all depends on your specific needs.

What are you looking for? Do you travel a lot? Do you have young children? Do you have teen who will borrow your car? Do you want a car which is environment friendly? Do you have to carry sport equipment? Do you need to tow a trailer or a camper? Do you want to keep it for a long period of times or do you want to change every two years such as leasing cars.

All I can say is that in the category of mini cars, the Smart is one of the safest cars around regarding impacts. Plus, it has low fuel consumption (less than 4 liters per 100 kilometers).

In sub-compact specialized websites state that Toyota Yaris and Honda Fit are top of the charts for reliability, safety and fuel consumption. These two small cars also have an excellent road behavior.

Among the compact Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla and Mazda 3 have been proven to be a good choice.But among these three, would be that the Mazda has a fuel consumption slightly higher than the others.

In the intermediate models include the Honda Accord, Toyota Camry and Mazda 6. Again, the Mazda fuel consumption is still slightly higher.

One of the best minivans is, against all odds, the Kia Sedona for its price and it's very safe.

For pickup trucks, the series of Ford Truck F-150, 250 and 350 are an excellent purchase.

First, considerate your needs and your budget, of course. Personnally, I don't own one of the cars mentionned above. I own a Ford Fusion SEL (Special Edition limited ) and I am very satisfied with it though the fuel consumption is higher than the Ford Focus I used to have before. The road behavior, the look of this car and its comfort are worth it.

If you are looking for safety, I suggest you to visit the following website to view the results of crash tests

http://www.iihs.org.