Ford Escape Tops Insurance Institute Crash Test; Chevy Equinox Poor Performer
GM says the Chevy Equinox and Pontiac Torrent meet or exceed all federal safety standards and have performed very well in other consumer information tests.
August 20, 2008
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says its latest round of testing shows smaller SUVs hold up better in crashes, as auto makers continue to pour more standard safety items into a segment becoming more popular with consumers.
Top safety picks from the Institute’s sample of eight small SUVs include the ’09 Ford Escape and Escape Hybrid, Mercury Mariner and Mazda Tribute platform mates. The ’08 Mitsubishi Outlander, ’08 Nissan Rogue and ’09 Volkswagen Tiguan also earn good ratings in evaluations for frontal, side and rear crashworthiness.
All of the vehicles are equipped with standard electronic stability control and side airbags, but the IIHS President Adrian Lund singles out the Tiguan and the Escape.
“(The Tiguan) sailed through the front- and side- crash tests without a single downgrade for structure or measures of injury likelihood recorded on the dummy,” Lund says in a statement.
The Arlington, VA-based group cites the Escape’s modified-for-’09 frontal airbags and seatbelts, as well as structural changes to improve occupant protection in frontal crashes. The Escape improves from acceptable to good in the group’s frontal offset crash test and a new seat design improves its rear crashworthiness from acceptable to good.