Last Auto News – Small Trucks Disappoint in New Round of Safety Tests

Last Auto News –

Compact pickups are not known to ace safety tests, and the latest round of results will do little to change that reputation. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, an auto safety testing lab run by a consortium of insurance companies, has published results of its latest round of safety tests involving small trucks – and the results are not encouraging.

Pickuptrucks.com reports, “Only one of five small pickup trucks – the Nissan Frontier — tested for rollover protection received a good rating from the by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the group reported late Wednesday. However, even the Frontier (also sold as the Suzuki Equator) fell short of achieving the IIHS’ “Top Safety Pick” recognition.”

Autoblog adds, “The Ford Ranger [fell] to second place with an ‘Acceptable’ rating and the Chevrolet Colorado, Dodge Dakota and Toyota Tacoma earned lowly ‘Marginal’ scores.”

Most surprising, in a side-impact test, the side head-curtain airbags of the Dodge Dakota failed to deploy. “In our tests, side airbags have proven to be very reliable, so this is a surprise,” IIHS spokesman Russ Rader told Pickuptrucks.com. Dodge engineers told the agency “they have identified the problem – a computer program algorithm that calculates when to fire the airbags – and are working on a remedy.”

In side-impact testing, Autoblog reports, many of the trucks “failed to live up to expectations…with the Frontier, Ranger and Tacoma getting ‘Good’ ratings and the Colorado getting the lowest ‘Poor’ rating.”

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