The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) U.S devised the insurance industry’s new frontal crash test by simulating a collision with a stationary object such as tree or pole. The so called overlap test involves crashing the frontal corner of the car into a barrier at 40 mph or 65 km/hr in ball park figure. With these new tests, cars were put through a more stringent process for overall safety assessment. Luxury cars are packed with technologies, however only 3 out of 11 luxury cars were rated good or acceptable.
While the Honda Accord and Suzuki Kizashi (to be discontinued in the US as Suzuki has announced to pull out) got top ratings. This was the first round of tests, limited to a select group of cars. The worst performing vehicles were the Toyota Camry and Prius. In both Toyota vehicles, the crash caused significant intrusion into the occupant compartment, in case of the Camry, the front wheel was forced sharply backwards towards the driver’s feet. The driver side airbags also failed to fully prevent the blow to the test dummy’s head in both crashes.
Honda, Subaru, Ford and Volkswagen have designed vehicles to handle the new crash tests while Toyota is yet to do the same. Toyota is already working on developing safer cars and feels there is no single solution to adhere to the new and more stringent crash testing norms laid down by the IIHS. Will these ratings affects sales of cars? Definitely yes, especially in the safety conscious US market.
Rated Good
- Honda Accord (4-door)
- Suzuki Kizashi
Rated Acceptable
- Ford Fusion
- Honda Accord (2-door)
- Kia Optima
- Nissan Altima, four door
- Nissan Maxima
- Subaru Legacy
- Subaru Outback
- Dodge Avenger
- Chrysler 200, four door
- Mazda 6
- Volkswagen Passat
Rated Marginal
- Hyundai Sonata
- Chevrolet Malibu
- Volkswagen Jetta Sedan
Rated Poor
- Toyota Camry
- Toyota Prius V
