Kia Soul, Toyota Prius and Honda Insight earn IIHS Top Safety Pick awards
IIHS 2010 small car crash tests - Click above for high-res image gallery
News comes today by way of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety that the 2010 Kia Soul, Toyota Prius and Honda Insight have all earned the group's coveted Top Safety Pick Award. That means each of the three vehicles managed to score the agency's highest rating of good in front, side, and rear tests and are equipped with electronic stability control (standard on the Prius and Soul, optional on the Insight).
Of course, this news also means that hybrid vehicle shoppers can rest assured knowing whichever hybrid hatchback happens to be on their wish list is a safe bet. See below for our complete galleries of the Kia Soul and Honda Insight being crash tested by the IIHS. No photos of the 2010 Toyota Prius crash test were available from the IIHS.
Gallery: IIHS 2010 Small Car Crash Testing
[Source: Insurance Institute for Highway Safety]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
xtasi 6:29PM (8/13/2009)
manufacturers have gotten good at making safe cars. It seems that it's news when a car doesn't get 5 stars.
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Switch 6:31PM (8/13/2009)
yes! now ugly economic cars are safe too!
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DayShifter 6:53PM (8/13/2009)
Shame I'm not interested in any of those cars..... can't wait for some more sporty hybrids.
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waiownsyou 7:07PM (8/13/2009)
What, like that Tesla S?
The Chevy Volt had me excited until I saw the production vehicle. The concept looked like a 300 C on steroids. The one now looks like a fat Impala.
DAMN IT GM
DayShifter 7:10PM (8/13/2009)
Yes, like the Telsa, but minus the near $100,000 price tag.
The Volt still looks good to me...
willyolio 3:19AM (8/14/2009)
the Tesla S is neither a hybrid nor will it cost $100k.
tankd0g 7:21AM (8/14/2009)
Silly willy.
DayShifter 11:11AM (8/17/2009)
Thanks... I missed the S, I was referring to the roadster.
Mr Clickerson 7:13PM (8/13/2009)
I find it funny... That those cars look to have more "injury causing" damage than the three trucks in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSFrvvWhmF4
That of course, is in response to the side crash tests, yet somehow these cars win "Top Safety Pick" awards, while the trucks in that video "fare poorly". Maybe I don't understand how this works, but judging by the actual damage done to the vehicles, and how much of the interior space has been crushed, I don't get how those trucks somehow "fare poorly".
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BobbyBud 7:47PM (8/13/2009)
Crash dynamics is pretty complex stuff. The test dummies they use nowadays are really sophisticated, and they measure deceleration of the various critical body parts (like the head) amazingly accurately. A lot of injuries are closed compartment type, ultimately meaning too much energy gets passed on to the occupants in a crash and severe internal injuries result. Until recently a lot of trucks and SUVs were just big stiff boxes that didn't crumple well and absorb collision forces, and there are other factors. Big tough trucks have made a lot of guys feels safer, but they really aren't except in certain specific kind of crashes. Check out how bad the F150 did until the 2004 redesign, where they really figured out better collision dynamics. They are still not the safest things on the road by a margin.
bwzd7p2 9:55PM (8/13/2009)
The Silverado certainly didn't do nearly as well as this trio in keeping the passenger space maintained. Go to the IIHS.org site and look. The pillar is way crushed and the truck got a poor for structure. Additionally, both it and the Ram lack side torso airbags and it showed in their ratings. Both got poor for torso protection. The Nissan did have torso bags, but still got a poor, indicating a possible poor design that doesn't go low enough and/or door trim issues. Go to the IIHS site and compare the size, especially length, of the Nissan's side bag with that of the Ford F-150, which got all Goods. The Nissan also did poorly in the rear because its curtain bag isn't long enough.
Note that all of the three cars tested had both curtain and seat-mounted torso bags.
Rar 7:39PM (8/13/2009)
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2009/08/iihs-small-car-crash_0003.jpg
Look like a Kia soul keep driver space perfectly.
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jsjs 8:21PM (8/13/2009)
Altho both scoring 5 stars, the Soul did significantly better than the Honda Fit/Jazz on the European NCAP tests for adult and child passengers.
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Chris 8:47PM (8/13/2009)
and the Camaro didn't do as well? The thing is a frigging tank!
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bwzd7p2 9:57PM (8/13/2009)
The Camaro hasn't been tested by the IIHS. These tests aren't directly comparable to the NHTSA's star program.
ConceptVBS 12:16AM (8/14/2009)
The Camaro might do worse since the IIHS test speeds are even faster than the governments.
Michael 12:39AM (8/14/2009)
The IIHS test is much more demanding structurally. A lot of European cars get 4-star NHTSA but Top Safety Picks from the IIHS.
The IIHS offset test is similar to Euro NCAP's, whereas the NHTSA's frontal test is unique to the US - so many cars aren't optimized to get five stars.
A friggin' Aveo gets five stars NHTSA - but in a crash, I'd much rather be in a Camaro.
Farmboy 12:32AM (8/14/2009)
It's not a surprise. Their design look like they would hold up fairly well. Even though I will never be in the market, or even like the Prius or Insight, I do applaud them. I see many Kia Souls in central Indiana. They have a better look than the Scion xB and definitely better than the Cube. The Soul looks like a well-executed concept with neat little features that set it apart.
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jpm100 5:46AM (8/14/2009)
IIHS tests are designed to reward small or light vehicles. Not that they're invalid, but so specific they're incomplete.
How often do you offset impact a block of cement vs. a SUV? How often is a side impact focused precisely on the side door and don't spill over towards the front wheel or rear wheel area? The large vehicles would have the advantage in those cases.
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tankd0g 7:24AM (8/14/2009)
How so? If anything they would be at a disadvantage with their larger momentum and wider target areas. Which is what the results show.