'Offset' crash tests find higher risk for smaller cars

There’s an old saying -- you can’t repeal the laws of physics. That may be the discussion right now at several small-car manufacturers today.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, known for its slow-motion car crash videos, sent the Honda Fit crashing into a Honda Accord, the Smart ForTwo into a Mercedes C-Class and a Toyota Yaris into a Toyota Camry -- each at 40 miles per hour. The results indicate what safety you may be trading for efficiency when your mode of transportation shrinks.

The tests are called "offset" crashes. The cars crash not quite head on, similar to what would result when a car strays over the center line, and the damage can easily intrude into the passenger compartment. Each of the small cars sustained damage the institute believes would lead to injuries for their occupants.

In a statement, Adrian Lund, president of the Arlington, Va.-based institute, said, "Though much safer than they were a few years ago, minicars as a group do a comparatively poor job of protecting people in crashes, simply because they're smaller and lighter. In collisions with bigger vehicles, the forces acting on the smaller ones are higher, and there's less distance from the front of a small car to the occupant compartment to 'ride down' the impact. These and other factors increase injury likelihood."

The Smart ForTwo had “extensive” damage...

New crash tests -- Small cars take a bashing for science

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has just released the findings of its latest set of crash tests. On this occasion, seven small 2009-model cars were selected for a thorough walloping while dummies were sacrificed on the altar of research. These mangled seven are the Chevrolet HHR, Chrysler PT Cruiser, Ford Focus, Hyundai Elantra, Saturn Astra, Suzuki SX4 and the Toyota Matrix/Pontiac Vibe (the last two are basically the same car with different badges). And just for good measure, the IIHS decided to trash a Mini Cooper as well, but this was classified as a mini car.

Sales of compact cars have been on the rise recently, in reaction to the gas price spike (and few would wager that the current downturn is anything other than temporary). These machines usually do well in front-end crashes, but not so hot during side and rear crashes. So all eight scored Good (out of Good, Average, Marginal and Poor) when meeting a frontal offset irresistible force homing in at 40 mph.

>>>Click here for the IIHS Crash test findings.

Although side-impact results are better for newer models...