Many Cars Are Failing New Safety Test

According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, a new crash test done by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety is resulting in poor marks for many luxury cars.  The test was designed to look at front corner collisions, an area that is not well protected by front crumple zones on most cars.  This was done by simulating what would happen if the front corner were to hit another car or object at 40 miles per hour.  Only three of eleven 2012 model luxury cars passed the test. David Champion, who directs Consumer Reports’ auto testing program, feels this does not bode well for other cars.  If the luxury cars are not passing the test, odds are that other models will also not pass.  He said he feels it will take, “five to ten years before every manufacturer works out how to do well in this test.” Adrian Lund, the institute’s president, said that most cars test very well in head-on collisions, but test was designed to show deficiencies in collisions that are slightly off-center.  He said those collisions are responsible for a large portion of the 10,000 yearly fatalities from head-on collisions.  The test found that in many cars, the front wheel pushes into the cabin of the car, many times causing serious injury.  Lund said of the test, “The problem of small overlap crashes hasn’t been addressed. We hope our new rating program will change that.”