The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has tested seven pickup trucks to find out how much protection they offer in five crash scenarios. This may come as a bit of a surprise for some pickup truck enthusiasts, but the 2016 Ford F-150 SuperCab is the only large pickup in the institute’s latest test group to earn a Top Safety Pick rating.
Some of you may remember that the IIHS tested the 2015 Ford F-150 SuperCab last year. The institute found out that the extended cab body style lacks the structural countermeasures that helped the 2015 Ford F-150 SuperCrew (crew cab) earn a Top Safety Pick rating. For the 2016 model year, FoMoCo improved the SuperCab to clinch the Top Safety Pick. The rating has been made possible by the available forward collision warning system, deemed “basic” by the IIHS.
“Ford is leading the way among large pickup manufacturers when it comes to protecting people in a range of crashes and offering technology to warn drivers of imminent frontal crashes,” declared Raul Arbelaez, the vice president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s Vehicle Research Center. “We commend Ford for taking last year's test results to heart and upgrading protection for SuperCab occupants in small overlap crashes.”
On the flip side, the F-150 SuperCab’s rivals are not as safe.
Photo: IIHS
As you can see in the attached illustration, the 2016 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Double Cab and the 2016 Toyota Tundra Double Cab earned an "acceptable" rating for occupant protection in the small overlap test. As for the 2016 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Crew Cab and the 2016 Toyota Tundra CrewMax, these body styles couldn’t do better than “marginal” in the small overlap test.
The most dramatic results are those of the 2016 Ram 1500 Crew Cab and Quad Cab, both earning a “marginal” rating overall and a “poor” rating for structure. “Drivers in these pickups would need help freeing their legs from the wreckage following a small overlap crash,” commented Arbelaez. You can see for yourself the extent of the wreckage by playing the latest videos uploaded on the IIHS YouTube channel.
Editor’s note: Ratings for the 2016 Nissan Titan and 2016 Honda Ridgeline aren’t available right now.
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
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News