Minicars Crash-tested Exhaustively Front, Top, Side, Tail

Completing the recent roof-crush tests of the smallest cars on the road, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has now exhaustively evaluated seven micro- and minicars: the Chevrolet Aveo, Honda Fit, Hyundai Accent, Kia Rio, Mini Cooper, Smart Fortwo and Toyota Yaris.
 
This year in addition to the roof crush tests, the IIHS also tested bumpers. Last year it did frontal, side and rear crash tests on these smallest-of-the-small cars. The IIHS also tested three of the seven against slightly larger cars. All ratings are expressed on a scale of Good, Acceptable, Marginal and Poor. There's good news and bad news in the overall testing results.

 
Roof crush tests: Most recently the insurance institute tested the roof strength of these tiny cars in a rollover. The Smart was the only model to get the highest rating of Good; the Aveo got a Marginal. The Accent, Fit, Mini, Rio and Yaris all received the second highest rating of Acceptable. None got the lowest rating of Poor.
 
This overall good showing might surprise some, but because of the light weight of the vehicles their roofs don't have to work as hard to keep the structure around the occupants intact in a rollover, according to the insurance institute.
 
Frontal crash tests: In this test, the Fit, Mini, Smart and Yaris all got a Good rating. The Aveo, Accent and Rio got the second highest rating of Acceptable.
 
Side crash tests: Things didn't go as well in the side crash tests. The Fit, Smart and Yaris all got Good ratings. The Mini got an Acceptable. But the Aveo got a Marginal and the Accent and Rio got a Poor. Surprisingly. The Smart got its Good score despite the fact that the driver's door came unlatched during the test. The same thing happened when it was tested in the federal government's side crash test, which the National Highway Safety Traffic Administration conducts.
 
Rear crash tests: These tests show how well the head restraints and seats protect against whiplash in a low-speed, rear-end collision. The Fit and Mini were the only models to get a Good rating. The Smart got an Acceptable. The Yaris got a Marginal and the Aveo, Accent and Rio got Poor.
 
Bumper tests: Unlike the other tests that gauge the ability to protect occupants in a crash, the four bumper tests examine the damage to an owner's wallet. None of the bumpers in this group earned a top rating of Good and just one, the Smart, got an Acceptable. The Aveo earned a Marginal. The rest got the lowest rating of Poor. The Rio had the highest total damage at $9,380 for all four repairs; the Smart had the lowest total damage of $3,281.
 
Now the bad news: Okay, so the Fit, Smart and Yaris got Good ratings in frontal crash tests, which replicate two vehicles of similar weights crashing into one another head-on. But then the insurance institute crashed these small vehicles into midsize cars from the same manufacturers to show that very small cars will be the losers in crashes even with cars that are just a little bit bigger -- not even full-size.
 
The Fit was crashed with a Honda Accord, the Smart with a Mercedes-Benz C-Class, and the Yaris with a Toyota Camry. The smaller cars, previously rated Good in frontal crash tests, now suddenly were rated Poor. Unfortunately, this is what happens in the real world when vehicles of all sizes have to try to play well together on our roads.
 
Consumers may access complete crash information at www.iihs.org.

IIHS Photo: The Toyota Camry earned an Acceptable rating in this midsize-with-small-car crash test while the Toyota Yaris earned a Poor rating.
 
Copyright, Motor Matters, 2009