I'm looking at pre owned GMC Yukon XL cuz it's a big SUV feels safe driving on those
look at crash ratings, not the shape of the car
Not really - depends on the exact make and model, but as a rule of thumb, with new crossover SUVs - No.
Car tests:
The "European New Car Assessment Programme" (EuroNCAP) assigns each model tested an exact safety score.
Safety scores are in percentages, and every couple of years the safety requirements (on which the scores are based) evolve - the current scoring system is unchanged since 2020 (requirement specification 2.13.0.0)
Looking at Toyota, in the "Adult Occupant" category, the Corolla Cross' got a worse score than the rather tiny Toyota Yaris.
Similarly, in the (2018-2019) tests, the RAV4 fell short of the Corolla.
(Other manufacturers do have SUVs that perform better than cars, it's really all on a model-by-model basis)
As an example: a toyota city car (scores 86%) out performs the not so compact Toyota Corolla Cross SUV (85%)
Real world statistics:
With that being said, looking at the "Driver death rates by make and model" statistics in the IIHS-HLDI report ( https://www.iihs.org/api/datastoredocument/status-report/pdf/55/2 ),
On average, midsize 4 door non-luxury cars have averaged 30 deaths per 10 billion miles, while 2WD midsize non-luxury SUVs scored a slightly lower 24 deaths per 10 billion miles.
Here, too the main difference has to do with the exact car type you purchase, for example the Toyota 4Runner is incredibly safe 13 (deaths per million registration years), while the Chevrolet Equinox has scored a horrible 45.
This is not far off the 14 (deaths per million...) scored by the Subaru Legacy, and the 41 scored by the Mazda 6!
Here we see that again, the exact model you pick matters way more than the format factor!
Real world / simulation crashes: (car vs car, not car vs standardized trollies and tests):
You can see how cars widely differ in safety, even top scores like the Corolla and the Jetta.
And then there are Volvos which make every other car look like it's made out of playdough...
TLDR: REAL WORLD SAFETY DEPENDS MORE ON THE VEHICLE MODEL THAN ON THE VEHICLE TYPE!
In my personal opinion, having good crash prevention systems is also a MUST on a modern car.
Thinking about it more, it was true for SOME old cars - but safety is evolving rapidly.
For example, with the (NOT recommended) Hyundai-Kia minicar platform, you can really see it evolve.
2012 - Poor (“RB” platform)
2013 - Marginal (updater “RB” platform)
2018 - Good (maximum rating, on the “YB” platform
Night and day difference in safety in just 6 years. From plain unsafe to one of the safest cars in its class - going as far as outperforming much larger competitors.
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Another thing that helps are active systems that prevent accidents from happening in the first place.
Some of them actually work!