Honda Civic Aces new IIHS Dual Barrier Crash Test

 
DETROIT -- Two redesigned Honda Civic models were the only small cars to get the top rating in stringent front-end crash tests performed by an insurance industry group.

Half of the 12 compact and subcompact cars tested by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety fared poorly, but six performed well. Safety is critical in the fast-growing small-car market, as buyers downsize from larger vehicles.

The two-door and four-door Civics earned "good" ratings, while the Dodge Dart, Ford Focus, Hyundai Elantra and the 2014 Scion tC were "acceptable."

Popular models such as the Chevrolet Cruze and Sonic and the Volkswagen Beetle got "marginal" ratings, while the Nissan Sentra, Kia Soul and 2014 Kia Forte were rated "poor."

The group didn't test the Toyota Corolla because a new version is coming out in the fall. The Corolla is the No. 2-selling small car in America, behind the Civic.

The two Civic models and the Dart, Focus, Elantra and Scion tC each earned the IIHS' coveted Top Safety Pick Plus award for performing well in multiple tests, including the small offset crash. So far, 25 vehicles of all sizes have earned the award.

The IIHS ratings are influential because many auto shoppers find them while researching vehicles on the Internet.

The market for small cars is one of fastest-growing in the U.S. Automakers have made the cars quieter and more refined as people who want good gas mileage turn to compacts and subcompacts.

So far this year, Americans have bought more than 1.8 million new small cars, up 12 per cent over a year ago, according to Autodata Corp. IIHS said that as a group, small cars performed worse than mid-sized cars, but better than small SUVs.

Results for mini-cars will be released later in the year, the group said. Kia said in a statement the IIHS test goes beyond U.S. government requirements and noted the Soul and Forte received top safety ratings from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Nissan said it will review the IIHS tests. The Sentra, it said, performed well in other IIHS tests.

Honda bolstered the Civic's front structure as part of a redesign late last year, said Karl Brauer, senior analyst at Kelley Blue Book.

Some older models, such as the Cruze and Sonic, were designed before the test was announced.

The IIHS, a non-profit research group funded by insurance companies, conducts its small offset test by crashing vehicles into a fixed 1.5-metre-tall barrier at 65 km/h to simulate collisions with a utility pole or tree.

The institute gives vehicles demerits when the structure intrudes into the passenger compartment, or if a crash dummy suffers injuries to head, neck, chest or other body parts. "Good" is the top rating, followed by "acceptable," then "marginal" and "poor."

 --The Associated Press

Honda’s Civic Tops All Safety Ratings

by Philippe Crowe of www.hybridcars.com

The new 2013 Honda Civic Sedan has received the highest possible overall safety ratings from both the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).

This is good news for a car that is known to be one of the most popular small car among individual buyers

The 2013 Civic Sedan recently received the top 5-Star Overall Vehicle Score in the NHTSA’s New Car Assessment Program (NCAP), and the highest possible rating of Top Safety Pick+ from the IIHS, including a top score of Good in the new small overlap frontal collision test.

Honda said it leads all automakers with every one of its tested model year 2013 vehicles earning a Top Safety Pick or Top Safety Pick+ rating from the IIHS.

The 2013 Honda Civic Sedan and Coupe are the first and only small cars to earn the IIHS’ highest safety rating of Top Safety Pick, and the NCAP 5-Star Overall Vehicle Score for the Civic Sedan further separates Civic from the competition in safety ratings performance.

The 2013 Accord also earned these high safety ratings in the midsize segment.

“Car shoppers cannot find a small car with higher overall safety ratings than the 2013 Honda Civic,” said Art St. Cyr, vice president of product planning and logistics at American Honda. “Safety ratings leadership across product lines is a fundamental part of not only our strategic business plan, but also our philosophy as a company.”

The Civic Sedan, which Honda said was significantly re-engineered for 2013, is equipped with Honda’s next generation Advanced Compatibility Engineering (ACE) body structure, which contributes to make Civic the first small car to earn a Top Safety Pick+ crash safety rating, and the first to earn the highest rating of GOOD in the IIHS’ new small overlap frontal crash test (sometimes called a ‘narrow offset’ test).

This aggressive test is designed to simulate what happens when the front corner of a vehicle collides with another vehicle or an object such as a tree or utility pole at high speed.

Honda said the reinforced ACE body structure found on the 2013 Civic further enhances frontal crash energy through a wider range of these offset and oblique collision scenarios.

Additional standard safety equipment on all Civic models include Vehicle Stability Assist (VSA) with traction control; an Anti-lock Braking System (ABS); side curtain airbags; dual-stage, multiple-threshold front airbags; and driver and front passenger side airbags.

Source;
http://www.hybridcars.com/hondas-civic-tops-all-safety-ratings/

2013 Honda Civic aces tough IIHS crash test

After some mixed results from early models tested in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's (IIHS) new small overlap crash test, the latest batch of vehicles earn top scores.

The Volvo XC60 and two- and four-door versions of the Honda Civic earn Good ratings for small overlap protection. Both the Lincoln MKZ and the redesigned 2014 Mazda6 sedans earned an Acceptable rating in the latest test.

For this test, vehicles careen into a 5-foot-tall rigid barrier at 40 mph, replicating the impact with a tree or pole. The simulated crash involves just 25 percent of the width of the vehicle, concentrating the force on essentially the driver-side front corner.

To reward good performers, the IIHS added a "+" to their coveted Top Safety Pick award for those models that earn a Good or Acceptable in this rigorous test. To qualify for a Top Safety Pick+, a vehicle must earn Good ratings in at least four out of five of their tests, which include the moderate front overlap crash, side impact, rollover, and evaluations of how well seat and head restraints protect occupants from neck injuries in rear impacts. Plus, the car has to earn no less than an Acceptable in the small front overlap crash test.

The Honda Civic is the first small car to earn the Top Safety Pick+ award. For 2013, the Civic received significant front structural upgrades in the car body and cabin to improve its performance in the small overlap test. (Honda made numerous other notable improvements to the Civic for 2013, addressing several key criticisms.) To improve the XC60 performance, Volvo engineers changed an algorithm to cause the side curtain airbag to deploy in this type of crash.

Previous models that have earned the Top Safety Pick+ designation include: Acura TL, Chrysler 200, Dodge Avenger, Ford Fusion, Honda Accord coupe, Honda Accord sedan, Kia Optima, Nissan Altima, Subaru Legacy, Subaru Outback, Suzuki Kizashi, and Volvo S60.

The recent tests of all five of these vehicles were made at the request of manufacturers. IIHS is currently working through a schedule to get more vehicles tested in this new protocol. As more vehicles are rated, we'll include those ratings in our online and magazine coverage.

Source;
http://news.consumerreports.org/cars/2013/03/2013-honda-civic-aces-tough-iihs-crash-test-xc60-mazda6-mkz.html