Midsize Cars Show Improvement In Crash Tests

[DainBramaged]

Several midsize cars have made strides in protecting motorists in side crashes through standard airbags and improved designs, the insurance industry reports.

Crash test results released Thursday by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety gave top scores in front-end and side-impact crashes to the 2008 Chevrolet Malibu, Saturn Aura, Dodge Avenger, Nissan Altima, Infiniti G35 and Mitsubishi Galant. The 2008 Kia Optima received the highest score in front-end tests and the second-highest score in the side test.

David Zuby, the Institute's senior vice president, said 10 similar vehicles tested in 2004 without side airbags received the lowest rating of "poor" in the side tests. Only past generations of the Honda Accord, Toyota Camry and Chevrolet Malibu received the top score in 2004 when they were tested with side airbags.

"The side impact results represent a huge change from just four years ago," Mr. Zuby said.

In rear-end testing, the results were mixed. The Optima was the only vehicle tested to receive a top rating, followed by the Avenger, which received the second-highest score of "acceptable."

Four of the vehicles -- G35, Altima, Malibu and Aura -- received the second-lowest score of "marginal" and the Galant received the lowest rating of "poor." Rear crashes can lead to neck injuries, which rack up two million insurance claims a year costing at least $8.5 billion.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120788116092507145.html?mod=AutosChannelMain_RelatedStories

[DainBramaged]

1. Two GM cars get top honors for front end crashes, gee no wonder no one replied.

:sarcasm:

I guess they just aren't as oood as those japanese cars.

http://www.iihs.org/news/2008/iihs_news_041008.pdf

[El Pinko]

2. My primary concern is, and has always been FUEL ECONOMY.

I have been driving cars that get minimum 35 mpg highway for 22 years now. None of them would do well in a collision against an SEV, but I drive very defensively and have not had an accident since I was an idiot teenager.

The one I have now gets 42 mpg. And the size of all the cars has been edging up for ages now, so that what was a compact model is now a midsize. The Honda Civic is about like an Accord used to be.


I'm glad that some cars are safer, but I really think everybody needs to be thinking about driving more fuel-efficient cars (if not hybrids) now, and then drive a lot safer on the roads.

PS - I'm not pro or anti-Japanese cars - My first 2 were Toyotas, then a Chevy-labeled Suzuki, now another Toyota.

It blows my mind that with gas as expensive as it is, people mired in debt and an piss-poor economy, that MOST cars on the road aren't 30-40 mpg compacts.

[DainBramaged]

3. So, where do people get the money to replace their vehicles with new gas efficient ones?

Magic? The poor don't have a choice, they drive what the can afford, and since 90% of us do the most traveling during the "combined" cycle, gas mileage means squat if the car is 10 years old, just keeping it on the road costs an arm and a leg. And what about large familes or "working" vehicles. Should they all be forced into compacts, put the excess in a trailer o on the roof?

It will take a generation to change the thinking of the American driver, and maybe that long to change the thinking of the automakers. And it's too bad you think only Japanese cars are efficient. Just because they make one or two efficient vehicles doesn't excuse Them from making all the gas pigs everyone so conveniently ignores during these "discussions".

[El Pinko]

4. I never buy new cars - My present one is 13 years old.

And I didn't say only Japanese vehicles are efficient, but they do produce more of the efficient models. If there was an affordable US-made econobox I would drive it.

Obviously you have some axe to grind against Japan, but I don't. I don't blame US or Japanese automakers for the SUV boom, I blame idiotic US consumer, and the government, for not having MUCH more stringent fuel-efficiency laws. There should be a major tax incentive for buying cars for each 5 mpg of fuel-efficiency.

I drove econoboxes when gas was cheap because (gasp) I believed in conservation then, too.

Working vehicles are another story. And be honest - look around at all the SUVS on the freeway during commute time. 90% of them STILL have one occupant. Ridiculous.