The American Insurance Institute of Highway Safety recently conducted crash tests on several smaller cars at their Arlington center in Vancouver, reporting mixed results. After being subjected to the challenging small overlap test, six models received marginal or poor ratings. From what we understand, Mazda's aging minivan was worse off, performing even less well than the Fiat 500L.
The Mazda5's occupant compartment fully collapsed, which crushed the dummies legs and damaged his chest area. The roof pillar collapsed, the windshield shattered and the rood unlatched. Most interesting of all is the fact that the side curtain airbag failed to deploy at all, which is probably going to be the subject of an investigation.
The IIHS created the small overlap test to simulate real world conditions. Real crashes rarely happen with the whole front of the car hitting a barrier. Instead, most people try to avoid what they're going to hit, which "condenses" the force of the impact over a much smaller area. Engineers tried to simulate this under controlled conditions by ramming the cars over 25% of their front fascia into a barrier at 40 mph (64.4 km/h), essential normal urban speeds.
"Collapse of the occupant compartment is the downfall for four small cars in this group, including the Fiat 500L, Mazda 5, Nissan Juke and Nissan Leaf," Nolan explains. "A sturdy occupant compartment allows the restraint systems to do their job, absorbing energy and controlling occupant motion."
"When we tested the Mazda 5 we saw a host of structural and restraint system problems. Parts of the occupant compartment essentially buckled, allowing way too much intrusion," Nolan says.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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