Posted Tuesday, September 17, 2013 at 2:11am
Tough safety standards have made modern cars better able to protect occupants in a crash. But a new crash test rolled out by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has made it harder for automakers to win a top safety ranking. However, Honda, Subaru and Volvo did especially well in the new test.
The “frontal small overlap” test which approximates just 25 percent of the vehicle front hitting another car, a tree or a pole, was especially tough for compact crossover SUVs. Of the 13 2013 and 2014 models tested, only the 2014 Subaru Forester got the top “good” rating. The Mitsubishi Outlander Sport got the second-level “acceptable” rating. Several other popular crossovers — including the Ford Escape, BMW X1 and Hyundai Tucson — got marginal or poor ratings. The Honda CR-V also got a marginal rating — Honda’s only poor performance on this test.
