New Designs Win Crashworthiness Test Evaluations
The Toyota Sienna and Volkswagen Passat, both new designs for the 1998 model year, earned the highest ratings in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's latest round of crashworthiness evaluations, released this month. An earlier model of the Passat earned a "poor" rating. So did the predecessor model to the Sienna, the Toyota Previa.
Crashworthiness evaluations are based primarily on performance in a 40 mph frontal offset crash test. All vehicles are rated in three categories and then assigned overall evaluations of "good," "acceptable," "marginal" or "poor." Head restraint design and bumper performance in low-speed crash tests don't affect overall evaluations but are considered when establishing vehicle rankings within each group (midsize four-door cars, passenger vans, etc.).
Three other redesigned 1998 passenger vehicles also were evaluated by the Institute. The Nissan Maxima improved to "acceptable" for 1998, compared with a rating of "poor" for the 1995 model. The Toyota Avalon improved from "marginal" in 1996 to "acceptable" in 1998. The 1995 Honda Accord, already rated "acceptable," kept this rating for the 1998 model year.
"The Passat and Sienna are totally new designs for 1998, so we hoped to see big improvements in crashworthiness, and we got them," Institute President Brian O'Neill points out. "In particular, the Sienna is on a par with the 1997 BMW 540i, previously the vehicle with the least amount of intrusion into the driver's space among the 50-plus vehicles we've tested so far. And the Sienna earned the highest rating of five stars for both driver and passenger in the federal government's 35 mph New Car Assessment Program crash test. So this vehicle demonstrates what can be achieved by a manufacturer who's committed to improving crashworthiness performance." The federal government hasn't released 35 mph crash test results for the 1998 Passat. The 1998 Avalon earned four stars for the driver and five for the passenger, while the Honda Accord and Nissan Maxima earned four stars for both driver and passenger.
Sienna and Passat Improvements
The Institute's frontal offset test is a demanding test of a vehicle's structural performance-how well the front-end crush zone absorbs the crash energy, minimizes damage to the occupant compartment (or safety cage), and prevents intrusion into the driver's space. This aspect of performance is assessed on the basis of measured intrusion into the area where the driver sits.
"The Sienna's structural performance was so good in the 40 mph offset test that intrusion into the driver's space was as little as we've seen in any of our crash tests so far," O'Neill explains. An offset test of the Sienna's predecessor model, the 1996 Toyota Previa, resulted in far more intrusion into the driver space, plus too much vertical movement of the steering column. Neither problem is evident for the Sienna.
The Passat improved a lot, too. The structural performance of a 1995 Passat in the Institute's offset test revealed moderate intrusion into the occupant compartment and extensive buckling of the floor under and behind the driver seat. Both of these problems have been substantially improved in the redesigned 1998 Passat.
"Auto makers obviously are paying attention to our crash test results," O'Neill says. "(They) are improving performance in offsets when they redesign their vehicles."