Only Two Small SUVs Earn Good Crash Rating In Updated IIHS Test

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety updates its moderate-overlap front crash test by adding an occupant to the rear. The agency tested this revised evaluation by putting 15 small SUVs through the assessment. Only two of them received the top score of Good. Nine got a Poor rating – the worst possible classification.

The Ford Escape and Volvo XC40 were the only two tested vehicles with a Good overall rating. The Toyota RAV4 earned an Acceptable score, which is one step lower in the classifications. The Audi Q3, Nissan Rogue, and Subaru Forester were Marginal, which is an additional level worse in the hierarchy. All of the rest got a Poor mark. All of the ratings are in the table below.

The previous version of the moderate-overlap front test had a vehicle traveling 40 miles per hour (64 kilometers per hour) strike an aluminum honeycomb. The impact zone was 40 percent of the vehicle's total width hitting the driver's side. The updated evaluation puts a crash dummy representing a small woman or 12-year-old child behind the driver.

All of the tested vehicles had Good overall ratings in the previous version of the crash evaluation. The additional requirement for rear occupant safety was what changed the rating in this re-assessment.

The IIHS changed the moderate-overlap front test because most vehicles received Good scores in the evaluation. However, automakers weren't making similar improvements for rear-seat occupants. According to the agency's data, a model from 2007 or newer have a 46 percent higher risk of fatal injury in the back than the front.

"Thanks to automakers’ improvements, drivers in most vehicles are nearly 50 percent less likely to be killed in a frontal crash today than they were 25 years ago. Our updated test is a challenge to manufacturers to bring those same benefits to the back seat," said IIHS President David Harkey.