Recent testing indicates that new cars are safe, regardless of their relative size. No surprise, then, that most of the latest 2009 model-year small cars tested by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety performed fairly well. Included in this round of testing were the Chevrolet HHR, Chrysler PT Cruiser, Ford Focus, Hyundai Elantra, Saturn Astra, Suzuki SX4, and Toyota Matrix. All seven of these machines (remember too that the Pontiac Vibe uses the same underpinnings as the Matrix) scored "good," the highest rating available, for occupant protection in frontal crashes, and only the newest designs -- the SX4, Matrix and Vibe -- scored that high in side crash testing.
The poorest performer of the group, Chrysler's PT Cruiser, also happens to be the oldest design. This being the case, it's lowly "poor" rating in side and rear crashes, due in large part to its ineffective head restraints and lack of rear side-mounted airbags, isn't too shocking. The HHR and SX4 also scored only marginally better in seat/head restraint testing. The latest MINI Cooper was also smashed for science, and it performed fairly well for a car of its diminutive proportions. For a complete recount of the IIHS results, click past the break. Feeling an unhealthy desire to see the aftermath?
Anybody who watches Autoline on Detroit or reads our Autoline on Autoblog posts will know that John McElroy is a certifiably nice guy. Bob Lutz is known more as a brash talker who isn't afraid to make his views known, regardless of what others may think. Both of them, though, are very closely attuned to the auto industry. The head product-honcho at GM and our very own Mr. Nice Guy share the opinion that the Feds should suspend their ever-increasing crash-testing standards for a few years. If a car is safe enough for our European relatives, it should be safe enough for us, right? In reality, this is not the case, as the U.S. standards differ enough from those across the pond that a car sometimes needs to be designed specifically to pass one or the other. For this reason, the Chevy Beat won't be sold on U.S. soil. To complete the deal, McElroy also suggests doing the same for environmental standards. As with crash tests, though both the U.S. and the European regulations are strict, they don't quite match. Therefore, many cars -- especially those equipped with diesel engines -- can't be sold in the States despite being available in Europe. Lutz doesn't specifically touch on this point, but we'd hazard a guess that he'd go along with it as well.
Hyundai's all-new Genesis sedan made yet another smashing impression as it pulled-off perfect 5-star ratings in recent U.S. government testing conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The Korean luxury vehicle was sent into a fixed barrier at 35 mph with two crash dummies strapped inside. Once the dust settled, instruments revealed both front seat passengers would have had less than a 10 percent chance of injury -- results earning 5-star ratings. Front and rear seat side impact testing revealed a low probability of injury as well, also earning the car 5-star ratings. In NHTSA rollover testing, the Genesis exhibited less than a 10 percent chance of rollover, again placing it among the top performers in that category. The admirable crash test scores earned by Hyundai's first venture into the luxury segment are sure to give the competition even more sleepless nights, especially considering all that luxury and safety starts at just $33,000.
Vägverket, the Swedish Road Administration, is reporting that General Motors used ten human cadavers for crash research. While it isn't clear which GM vehicle hosted the corpses on their one-way trip into a wall, a spokesman for Vägverket said it was most likely the Saab brand. The spokesman was also quick to point out that all of the cadavers were people "who had donated their own bodies." (Well, that is comforting to know!)
While cadavers were used in the earliest crash tests (first started in the late 1930s), most of us were under the assumption that fully-instrumented million-dollar synthetic crash test dummies, or computer simulations, had replaced human remains in current testing. Apparently, some folks at GM may have been thinking otherwise. As of today, neither General Motors or Saab have acknowledged any tests involving dead bodies, but our hunch says this issue hasn't been laid to rest.
Ford has been very quiet about what it will have onstage at the New York Auto Show tomorrow, but one vehicle we do know that will be under the lights is the Ford Taurus. While there will certainly be a number of Taurus models waxed, polished and placed just so in Ford's display at the Jacob Javits Center, one in particular will be a mess. Ford will display a crash-tested Taurus in New York to show off the big car's five-star rating for frontal and side crash tests from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Unlike the mangled Celica that used to sit outside your highschool at prom time, the crash-tested Taurus on display in New York will be interactive. Show goers will be allowed to sit in the post-crash Taurus to see what a crash test dummy sees after a 35-mph meet up with an offset concrete barrier. Looking at the pic above, it is pretty impressive that the passenger compartment remains untouched after such an event. We're looking forward to our seat time with this one, though any trip to the Autoblog Garage might necessitate a tow truck.
