The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has conducted its latest round of crash testing, this time for small two-door coupes.
"We're often asked about the crash test performance of 2-door cars," says David Zuby, Institute senior vice president for vehicle research. "Design and structural differences mean we can't automatically apply our test results of 4-door cars to 2-door versions of the same models. We decided to do these tests to see how the 2-doors stack up in protecting people in the 3 most common kinds of crashes."
Five cars were tested: Chevrolet Cobalt, Ford Focus, Honda Civic, Scion tC and Volvo C30. The Focus and the C30 came away with top pick awards for their performance.
"Overall the results for 2-door cars are good news," Zuby says. "All but one earn good ratings in our frontal offset test. Only 2 of the 5 earn this rating for protection in side crashes, but none of the 5 earns anything less than an acceptable rating. This is pretty good, considering how demanding the side test is. It simulates being struck by a pickup or SUV."
IIHS: Crash Tests of Two-door Cars
jederino says:
12:54 PM, 07/21/09
Good news! Shows part of the reason even small cars are getting porky - they're a heck of a lot safer than they used to be!
jaxonll says:
10:41 AM, 07/22/09
The Ford Focus is doing very well in sales. Most likely because of the safety and high real-world 35 mpg. It is cheap, reliable.
The statistic people watch for getting a good deal is days on the lot. In July the average Ford Focus stayed on the lot only 8 days. So the price will be closer to the sticker than the invoice. But in certain cities, you can still get a good deal. Visit: http://excarsalesman.typepad.com/