Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Small pickups score badly in recent crash tests

Coloradocrashtestside With names that conjure up images of the rugged West, you might expect small pickup trucks to be tough contenders in a collision. But in crash tests performed for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, that was not the case and most of the vehicles did not offer strong side-impact protection.

This is the first time the IIHS has tested side-impact protection on small pickup trucks and the results were not favorable. Side-impact tests are important because these type of crashes are the second most common type of fatality. In addition, small pickups have the highest driver death rate of all vehicles with most occurring in single-vehicle crashes and rollovers.

The crash test results show that only the Toyota Tacoma earned the highest rating of good in the side test for occupant protection. The remaining trucks—Dodge Dakota, Mitsubishi Raider, Ford Ranger, Mazda B Series, Nissan Frontier, Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon—rated poor or marginal.

To see how the trucks ranked, read the full report on our Cars blog. And to find out how your vehicle fared in an IIHS crash test, check out the 250 crash test videos in the Car section.

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