Driving practice continues.  I am enjoying getting chauffeured around.  A trip to the corner Safeway makes me feel like Oprah.

Here's a brand new resource to investigate potential vehicles...

Till now the two benchmarks for car safety analysis have been government crash tests and Insurance Institute of Highway Safety analysis.  This week a very well-regarded car safety expert and longtime ASU Professor of Engineering has released a new approach.  Her website, TheAutoProfessor.com, is a "groundbreaking new website that provides the only complete and reliable car safety rating system based on real-life crash data. Unlike the NHTSA 5-Star Safety Ratings and IIHS Safety Awards that are based on crash test dummies in a controlled lab, The Auto Professor's Auto Grades® ranking system is based on years of federal crash statistics giving users the true and historically accurate protection level of over 4,000 make-model-year vehicles."

The Auto Professor's free Auto Grades® system was created from data that shows which drivers walked away from the worst crashes and which did not.  Using 30 years of extensive auto safety knowledge coupled with data mining expertise and statistics, Dr. Hubele and her team of Data Scientists created this easy to use Auto Grades system:

A, A-:                Top-tier driver protection.

B+, B, B-:         Better-than-average driver protection.

C+, C, C-:         At or below-average driver protection.

D+, D, D-:         Subpar driver protection.

F:                      Bottom-tier driver protection.

Auto Grades also takes safety a step further by offering personalized grades by age and gender - information that no one has ever offered before.  Information that will help consumers, personally, make the safest and best choice possible when buying or leasing their next car, SUV or truck.

There is no best vehicle -- but this promises to be a useful tool in evaluating choices for your family.  And especially your newest drivers.