Is the Crossover SUV as Safe as You Want?

We may all have noticed that the sales and popularity of small crossovers are skyrocketing. It’s far more practical than a sedan as well as a large SUV and seems to attract most of its young customers. As a result, these small SUVs are very high in terms of sales volume and popularity. However, recent tests have shown that a significant number of popular crossovers running on the streets today are not as safe as they are supposed to be! This test was conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), and of all the crossovers that participated, only two actually exceeded the passing score limit.

The two SUVs that passed the test were the Subaru Forester and the Mitsubishi Outlander. In fact, the Outlander just got an acceptable score, so only Subaru Forester actually gave a good score. All other SUVs couldn’t even cross this “acceptable” mark. It is interesting to note that both of these SUVs have recently been redesigned. Apparently, Mitsubishi and Subaru engineers were keenly on the lookout for new tests introduced by IIHS!

The new test included in the regular IIHS series tests was the “small overlap crash test”. This test reproduces the effect of a vehicle hitting a strongly fixed object, such as a pole, head-on. The SUV under test is initially designed to drive the front into a 5 foot long hard object at a speed of 40 mph (64 km / h). This test reproduces the results if the front corner of the vehicle is damaged. This test checks the efficiency of airbags and seat belts in a much better way than other head-on collision tests. IIHS has created two different categories: “Top Safety Picks +” and “Top Safety Picks”. The above two SUVs that passed the newly introduced “Small Overlap Crash Test” were given the title of “Top Safety Pick +”, and the other SUVs that did not pass the test were in the remaining tests. It worked pretty well. The latter category.

Joe Nolan, vice president of the institute, said, “With the redesigned Forester, Subaru engineers set out to succeed in our new test and succeeded. This is exactly what the manufacturers are for these people. This is the way we wanted to respond to improve our protection. Some kind of serious head-on collision. ”The Institute has classified Subaru Forester and Mitsubishi Outlander into the“ Top Safety Pick + ”category and all tested. Declared as the safest option in the SUV. The SUVs listed in the “Top Safety Pick” category were Kia Sportage, Jeep Patriot, Mazda CX-5, Toyota RAV-4, Volkswagen Tiguan, BMW X1, Buick Encore, Ford Escape, Honda CR-V and Hyundai Tucson. However, the Toyota RAV-4 has not yet undergone a new test. The lab says SUVs will not be tested until next year due to pending changes that will improve SUV safety statistics many times over.