My children are 4 and 1 and so technically, I would be arrested if they were caught behind the wheel of either

But yeah, fully with what you're saying. My dad calls those little cars (Fiesta's etc) "tin cans". I know safety has moved on in a huge way and all new cars are fairly safe, but the sheer size of those things just scares me as they are so small, that you will never be more than 1 meter away from the point of impact. I feel my kids are safer high up in my X5 than lower down but I could not afford a brand new SUV at this time.