2007 NHTSA Crash Tests In: Buick LaCrosse Big Loser
Yesterday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administrations released the results of frontal, side impact and rollover crash tests on 63 cars from the 2007 model year. Almost every car on the list received either four- or five-star frontal and side-impact ratings. The lone exceptions were the 2007 Buick LaCrosse, which only received one star for protecting the driver and front passenger in side crash tests, and the outgoing Mitsubishi Lancer, which will be replaced by its 2008 model next month. The 2007 Lancer received a two-star rating for protecting the driver and front passenger. GM says it has made "tweaks" to the LaCrosse for the rest of the 2007 model year to make it safer, but it has not been retested.
Cars.com uses the more stringent safety ratings from the IIHS when judging a car’s safety when the scores are available. Of all the cars that NHTSA tests, 95% receive a four- or five-star safety rating, making comparisons difficult. The NHTSA plans to update their testing procedures by the end of the year.
Full 2007 NHTSA Crash Results Below
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"...which only received one star for protecting the driver and front passenger..."
According to the chart posted below the blog post, the LaCrosse received five stars for the driver and front passenger in the frontal impact test, one star for the driver in the side impact test (with side airbags), and three stars for the rear passenger in the same test.
It's still surprising that it scored that low.
segfault,
you're correct. I tweaked the wording to be more specific.
Ouch, even with side airbags it did that poorly? Very surprising for a "large" new-model car. Could it possibly be a test malfunction of some kind? Should they do it again just to be sure?
the fact that GM actually made a change to the vehicle says to me it wasn't a bad test. probably something that didn't translate from the pre-production tests to reality. I wonder if the NHTSA will retest.
The IIHS also showed a strange test
http://www.iihs.org/ratings/rating.aspx?id=635
definitely not good for the driver.
How did they conduct the tests?
I mean, a Chevy Aveo and a Kia Rio(Except the frontal driver) both performed better than the LaCrosse? What's the deal?
Do they use different tests on different classes of vehicles or what?