Although fatalities and injuries associated to crashes have dropped slightly in recent years, the safety watchdogs know that the Stateside motorist suffers from distracted driving and other potentially fatal driving habits. In this regard, the NHTSA and IIHS are still crashing brand new cars to inform the consumer of how safe the newest batch of vehicles really are.
The latest round of IIHS crash tests involves two highly popular choices in the subcompact crossover (mini SUV) segment - the 2015MY Chevrolet Trax and its Buick counterpart. Both nameplates are basically reskinned derivatives of the 2012 Opel Mokka.
So what we have here are three-year-old cars put to the test by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Curious about how they fared considering that the peeps from the IIHS continually revise crash testing safety criteria? You'll be extremely surprised.
I don’t mean to beat around the bush, so here is what you’ve been waiting for: the Chevrolet Trax and Buick Encore got Top Safety Pick. Compared to the highly-coveted Top Safety Pick +, the TSP award is given to a car that earns “good ratings in the moderate overlap front, side, roof strength and head restraint tests,” together with a “good or acceptable rating in the small overlap front test.” Not bad at all.
Before you play the crash test video below, we want to mention the essentials: intrusion was kept to a minimum (6 inches at the door hinge and instrument panel), while the dummy hit the front airbag and remained there until rebound. Compare to the “poor” small overlap test of the 2013-2014 model year Buick Encore, we could say that these results are a clear statement to the improvements made by General Motors.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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