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The Street

Laura Rodini

Best-rated 2025 SUVs under $40k according to Consumer Reports

Consumer Reports Hyundai Subaru SUV Toyota CR IIHS Honda Kia NHTSA

Safety should always be a top priority when buying a new car, which is why many drivers choose to spend their hard-earned money on an SUV instead of buying a sedan.

The simple truth is, because SUVs are larger and weigh more than sedans, they provide better protection in the event of a crash.

According to an August 2024 update from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), considered to be the authority on car safety, bigger and heavier vehicles are proven to provide better protection in frontal crashes, which account for half of all passenger deaths.

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Why are SUVs safe?

The IIHS explains that during a crash, vehicle size and weight play critical roles:

Larger vehicles, like SUVs, have more distance between their front end and where occupants are seated, which means they can absorb more of the impact of a crash through “crumple zones.” SUVs have larger crumple zones than smaller cars; therefore, they absorb more collision energy.
A vehicle’s weight also matters in a collision, as heavier vehicles, like SUVs, will push the lighter vehicle backward, thus exerting less force on the people inside the heavier vehicle.

However, size plays against SUVs when it comes to pedestrians and bicyclists, as they are more likely to be injured or killed when hit by SUVs than they are by cars.

The IIHS mentioned that older SUVs and pickup trucks (built before 2016) pose additional risks, because their bumpers are higher than sedans'. However, automakers fixed this issue in newer models by better aligning these components with those of smaller vehicles.

The most reassuring news is that, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the safety of vehicles of all sizes has dramatically improved in recent years thanks to engineering advancements that include backup cameras, blind spot warnings, automatic emergency braking, and other forms of driver assistance.

But, the IIHS notes, newly built larger vehicles, like SUVs, are the safest of them all. This chart illustrates how crash deaths decline as vehicle size increases:

Car and SUV driver deaths per million registered vehicle years

A correlation exists between vehicle size and occupant deaths.
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS)

How does Consumer Reports evaluate cars?

Consumer Reports, itself is a trusted name in independent automobile research, testing, and recommendations since 1936, incorporates safety metrics from the IIHS and NHTSA into the safety score of each vehicle it tests.

Every year, CR purchases dozens of new cars, trucks, and SUVs to test at its 327-acre automotive course and test facility in Colchester Connecticut, the largest independent auto testing center in the world.

Each vehicle is put through a 50-point barrage of tests that examines factors like acceleration, braking, emergency handling, and fuel economy.

It assigns ratings based on these test results, as well as data from surveys to its 6 million members asking car owners to rate their vehicle on qualitative factors, such as customer satisfaction and reliability, noting any problems that occurred over the past 12 months, and whether or not they were covered by warranty.

More on automobiles:

The vehicles with the highest cumulative scores receive Consumer Reports’ highest mark, the distinction of being a “CR Recommended” vehicle.

The following 10 SUVs all carry the “CR Recommended” status and received an overall score of 80 or higher. For their complete list, visit Consumer Reports’ website.

The best SUVs under $40K according to Consumer Reports data

According to Kelley Blue Book, the average price of a new SUV in December 2024 was $49,740, making these 10 recommended picks even more attractive buys, as they all start under $40,000.