What is the most important feature for women when buying a car? According to a recent study by the Good Housekeeping Institute and JD Power and Associates, nearly four out of five women think safety features are more important than styling. And automakers are listening - by making vehicles safer, automakers are also making them more female-friendly.

Innovations like airbags, when used with safety belts, have increased crash survival rates dramatically. Recent technologies are also making today's cars and trucks safer than ever. Electronic stability control helps avoid crashes. If the vehicle isn't turning where or as much as you want, the brakes are used to bring the vehicle back in line with what you want it to do. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says electronic stability control could save more than 7,000 lives if it was used in every car in the U.S.

Structural enhancements like crush zones and safety cages also help protect drivers and passengers during a crash. After a crash, in-vehicle communications systems like OnStar can detect if an airbag is deployed and help bring emergency services to the location of the accident immediately.

And more good news for women buying cars - General Motors recently announced that OnStar would be standard on its vehicles by 2007 and electronic stability control would be standard in the U.S. and Canada by the end of the decade.