The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety put five small cars to its most rigorous frontal crash test, and the results weren’t good.
None of them managed to get the highest rating of the agency, which is good.
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“In all of the minivans we tested, the rear dummy ‘sunk’ under the seat belt, causing the lap belt to hit the belly and increasing the risk of internal injuries,” said David Harkey, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).
Updated mild-overlay frontal crash testing puts an extra dummy in the car in the back seat behind the driver.
To get the highest score in the rating, the sensors in place need to show that they will be safe in the event of an accident.
In the three poorly scored vehicles, sensor measurements from the rear dummy indicated a medium or high risk of head, neck, or chest injuries.
--IIHS changed its mild overlap frontal test after research showed that rear passengers were less safe than passengers in the front.
Over the years, automakers have introduced things like better airbags and advanced seat belts to keep drivers safe.
However, these innovations were not applied to people in the second row.
In March, IIHS placed 13 midsize SUVs under this rating.
Only four of them earned a good score: 2022-2023 Ford Explorer, 2021-2023 Ford Mustang Mach-E, 2022-2023 Subaru Ascent, and 2022-2023 Tesla Model Y.
In December 2022, the institute has run 15 small SUVs through evaluation. Among them, only the 2022-23 Ford Escape (built after May 2022) and the 2021-23 Volvo XC40 got good scores.
