Last year, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety stepped up its testing regime with a more demanding moderate overlap front evaluation. The reason the nonprofit organization modified this particular test is the increased focus on front-passenger safety to the detriment of rear occupants. The updated moderate overlap front evaluation is especially hard on small cars, which don't provide adequate protection in the back.
The latest round of testing saw no fewer than five small cars receive the worst rating possible for rear passenger restraints and kinematics. The overall ratings for the updated moderate overlap front evaluation range between poor and acceptable. The cars in question are the 2022 to 2023 Honda Civic sedan (acceptable), 2023 Toyota Corolla sedan (acceptable), 2022 to 2023 Kia Forte sedan (poor), 2022 to 2023 Nissan Sentra sedan (poor), and 2022 to 2023 Subaru Crosstrek (poor).
As you're well aware, Subaru introduced a redesigned Crosstrek for 2024. The newcomer still hasn't been tested by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety at its testing facility in Virginia, but given time, we'll see if Subaru paid more attention to the rear occupants.
The result will be all the more interesting because the Crosstrek still uses the Subaru Global Platform of its predecessor. In the Japanese automaker's defense, Subaru did use more welds and structural adhesives to increase the compact crossover's structural rigidity.
That said, what is the biggest concern of the IIHS in regard to the aforementioned vehicles? According to big kahuna David Harkey, the rear crash test dummy submarines under the seat belt, which causes the lap belt to move onto the occupant's abdomen. Considering the immense forces at play in the scenario replicated by the moderate overlap front crash test, internal injuries cannot be ruled out. The updated test's rear dummy is the size of a small woman or a 12-year-old child because many automakers test their vehicles for rear-occupant safety with adult man-sized crash test dummies.
The poor-rated cars mentioned earlier were rated worse than the Civic and Corolla due to either moderate or high risk of injury to the head, neck, and chest. In addition to the lap belt-inflicted internal injuries, that is.
Introduced in 2021 for the 2022 model year, the latest-gen Civic is available as a sedan from $23,750 sans destination charge at press time. The Hatchback is one grand more, whereas the Civic Type R comes exclusively as a five-door from a cool $43,795.
The Corolla is slightly more affordable in base specification at $21,700, whereas the GR Corolla hot hatchback can be yours from $35,900. Twinned with the Kia Ceed for Europe, the Forte is the most affordable small car of the bunch at $19,690 before taxes.
Nissan, which is probably the worst offender of the bunch in terms of quality, asks $20,050 for its compact sedan. Last but certainly not least, the 2023 model year Crosstrek used to kick off at $23,645 back in June 2022. The 2024 model, by comparison, is $24,995.
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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