I hesitate to spout off but while the newer car will have air bags and crush zones to absorb an impact, I think she should drive what she wants and what she is comfortable with. These features only are useful in an accident so the goal should be to avoid accidents, then its a moot point. I’ve put on over a million miles and haven’t had a moving accident since 1968 and many of those miles were in older cars without air bags or crush zones. I never felt unsafe. So I would recommend rather to enroll her in a National Safety Council approved defensive driving class to learn accident avoidance techniques. Learning about maintaining safe zones all around the car, safe following distances, anticipating errors by other drivers, and so on, will contribute more to long term safety than air bags.
Safest car? 1993 Volvo 240 wagon/tank with 238,000 miles versus 2004 Prius/tin can with 28,000 miles
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