What about the true safety factors involved, not just perceived?
A tall car is safer
IF you are hit by a tall car or truck - bumper heights, etc.
A
longer, wider car is safer in all kinds of crashes, all else being equal.
I don't want to be in the fit/versa if I'm rear-ended. Maybe with a hefty structural Kammback!
I purposefully added 8" to the front of my car with my front bumper/air dam I made from (crumplable) metal conduit. My Kammback also elongates my car's crumple zone by almost 2 feet beyond the bumper. (it's exactly 1 meter from the
top of the hatch).
Looking at safercar.gov can give you a good look at general trends, and longer cars tend to outscore shorter cars from the same vintage and technology era. The very long camaros and firebirds always score well in frontal crashes; their noses are LONG!