We've always known that small cars may have an advantage in accident avoidance because they may have good handling compared to large cars. In side impacts, the ratings may be more comparable across vehicle weight classes. Unfortunately, in frontal crashes, a smaller, lighter car is often at a disadvantage if it crashes a larger car or SUV. It's simple physics. This is why you can't compare frontal crash test ratings from one vehicle class to another. It's also where the composite risk ratings from www.informedforlife.org come in handy of you are considering more than one type of vehicle.
http://www.iihs.org/news/rss/pr041409.html
http://www.iihs.org/externaldata/srdata/docs/sr4404.pdf
http://www.iihs.org/news/rss/pr041409.html
http://www.iihs.org/externaldata/srdata/docs/sr4404.pdf