Yes! I had the exact same reaction to this story. The way I interpreted the story is that the design of the Versa may actually have contributed to his wife's safety. It's possible the car was designed to crumple in such a way to distribute the weight of the collision. Ironically getting a Crown Victoria may decrease the overall safety.
There's not much zone to crumple in a side impact. On the sides, all effort is invested in keeping the rigid zone rigid and cushioning the resulting acceleration with airbags, as good as space inside the rigid zone is permitting.
