The insurance industry added 6 small SUVs and crossovers to the list of safest vehicles but denied the highly sought after safety rating to five others.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), a research group for automobile insurers, awarded its Top Safety Pick to the Nissan Rogue, Volkswagen Tiguan, Mitsubishi Outlander, Ford Escape, Mercury Mariner and Mazda Tribute. The safety awards include hybrid versions of the Escape, Mariner and Tribute.
"Consumers now have multiple hybrid SUVs earning the Top Safety Pick to choose from. Others include the midsize Saturn Vue and Toyota Highlander, which the institute evaluated earlier," IIHS said in a statement.
The vehicles failing to win the safety award were the Suzuki Grand Vitara, Chevrolet Equinox, Pontiac Torrent, Jeep Patriot and Jeep Wrangler.
Institute President Adrian Lund offered a stinging critique of the Wrangler and the vehicle's ability to protect occupants during in a crash. "We've rarely seen a vehicle go in the wrong direction and get a worse rating after it has been redesigned," Lund said.
The Wrangler was tested without optional side airbags and received the only rating of "poor" in the recent round of tests, for the side-impact crash. Chrysler did not request another test of the Wrangler with the optional side airbags, according to IIHS.
Chrysler did request a second test of the Jeep Patriot with optional torso airbags. When tested with the standard curtain airbags only, the Patriot earned the second lowest rating of "marginal."
While the curtains did a good job of keeping the driver and rear passenger dummies' heads from being struck by the barrier or hard structures inside the vehicle, forces on the driver dummy indicated that rib fractures and internal organ injuries would be likely in a real-world crash of this severity, according to IIHS.
The institute reported that in the second side test of the Patriot with the optional seat-mounted torso airbags, this vehicle's rating improved to "good."
IIHS singled out the 2009 Ford Escape and Volkswagen Tiguan for safety improvements.
"In the latest tests, the Tiguan's performance is a standout," Lund said. "It sailed through the front and side crash tests without a single downgrade for structure or measures of injury likelihood recorded on the dummy."
About the Ford Escape, the IIHS said the "small SUV was re-engineered for the 2009 model year. Among the changes are modifications to the frontal airbags and safety belts plus structural changes to improve occupant protection in frontal crashes."
Lund applauded the automobile industry overall for safety gains, especially by adding side airbags and electronic stability control to vehicles.
The IIHS frontal crash is at 40 mph into the corner of a barrier. For the side crash, the institute drives the nose of a truck-like object into the test vehicle at 31 mph. Seats and head restraints are evaluated for the rear-crash score.
