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Re: New "small overlap" crash test Posted by Snowmobile [Email] (#686) [Profile/Gallery] (more from Snowmobile) on Tue, 29 Oct 2013 11:35:00 In Reply to: New "small overlap" crash test, NCCaniac [Profile/Gallery] , Tue, 29 Oct 2013 10:58:59 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
This is what I keep saying... iihs crash testing has been great for bringing up the average level of safety in cars, but most brands are simply designing to pass the test. Saab didn't do that - they designed the car to be optimally safe over a much larger set of tests based on real world data they collected, and even did sequential testing (any reliability engineer will tell you that in many cases, that's *much* harder to pass)... It is not surprising then that a new Kia or Toyota might surpass a Saab in certain specific tests, and then be significantly (possibly disastrously) worse in some other not previously conceived test or real life situation...
It is unfortunate that more of the buying public was not in tune with this or Saab and Volvo would be doing better than they are now. For most consumers "5 stars" means the car is perfectly safe, as good as anything out there! but it's always been possible to get "5 stars" even as cars have improved year over year...
This sort of thing has also been used to create an illusion that the new small cars are equally safe... sure they are waaay better than small cars of the past, but physics is physics, and lightweight vehicles with limited compaction volume get the short end of a collision with a heavier vehicle. To some extent, they are lucky to be able to take advantage of crumple zones of the other vehicles!
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