Only Foreign cars Top Safest Vehicles

[rfdrfd]

American car makers better smarten up:

http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_5453.aspx

Only Foreign Cars Top List Of "Safest Vehicles" On The Road
Tuesday November 21, 2006
The safest vehicles on the road all drove a long distance to get there. That's because every one of them figuratively came from overseas.

The U.S. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has released the list of the safest cars in the world, and there isn't a single domestic make on it.

The industry's ranking placed 13 foreign-made vehicles on its annual chart, and they all made it because of one single factor - every car on the list had a new electronic stability control installed in it.

It's a device that senses when a driver loses control and automatically applies the brakes to prevent a rollover.

A new requirement makes the safety feature mandatory in all cars and SUV's, and those behind the rankings were obviously trying to make a point about how slowly North American manufacturers were moving to add it to their products.

"The research is so compelling that electronic stability control could help prevent many crashes from happening in the first place," advises spokesman Russ Rader.

The top ranked automobiles are:

Large Car
Audi A6 (pictured, top left)

Midsize Car
Audi A-4
Saab 9-3
Subaru Legacy (with optional stability control)

Minivans
Hyundai Entourage
Kia Sedona

Luxury SUVs
Mercedes M-class
Volvo XC90

Midsize SUVs
Acura RDX,
Honda Pilot
Subaru B9 Tribeca

Small SUVs
Honda CR-V
Subaru Forester

Each of the cars listed also passed muster in side, rear and front crash tests.

Pick-up trucks weren't included in the research and no small cars made the list.

The Institute claims Ford's Freestyle, Mercury Montego and its 500 sedans, as well as nine Toyota vehicles, would have been added if they'd had the device, sometimes abbreviated the ESC, onboard.

Ford has pledged to make it standard on every one of its models by 2009, the same year as Toyota.

General Motors will have the safety feature in some of its SUVs and pickups by 2007 and will roll it out completely by 2010.

DaimlerChrysler AG reveals it will have ESC in 54 percent of its cars this year.

And all 2007 SUVs, pickups and minivans produced by Honda already have it, even though none of their vehicles made the list.

Hyundai says it will be in 70 percent of its 2007 cars.

ESC costs between $300-$800 as a stand alone, but can raise the price of a car by as much as $2,000, depending on what kind of equipment is also being offered.

It's called by various names, including Electronic Stability Program, StabiliTrak, or Active Handling, so if you're considering a new car, be sure to confirm it's present before you buy.

Also-rans
The following cars were all ranked 'good' when it came to front and side crash tests, but didn't score well in rear protection impacts and were judged to have had inadequate seat/head restraints.

Acceptable rear protection
Audi A3
BMW 3-series 4dr
Lexus IS 250/350
Marginal rear protection
Acura TL
Honda Odyssey
Lexus ES 350
Lexus GS 350
Toyota Camry
Toyota FJ Cruiser
Toyota Prius
Toyota RAV4

Poor rear protection
Honda Accord 4dr
Infiniti M35
Nissan Quest
Toyota Avalon
Toyota Sienna

Source: IIHS

[MrDisco]

interesting, but i question the wording of the report. on base models esc may not be available, but on higher models it does come standard on certain vehicles.

[stevethewheel]

Wow. Nice slap at the North American makers.

[frogger]

AWD is a good safety feature too, yet they don't make that a requirement for making the safetest vehicles list.

And the also rans list, way to write an article?? Why are those related to the top rated vehicles when they have Poor rear protection?

[stevethewheel]

AWD is a good safety feature too, yet they don't make that a requirement for making the safetest vehicles list.

Nah. They only made esc a requirement so that they could leave the North American vehicles off the list and send a message. It's not so much about safety, it's about sending a message.

[frogger]

Ah well, atleast they didn't try to pawn off subcompacts and microcars as safe.

[Anessa]

I'm sure the Mercury Milan will get up there and that Ford Edge...carmakers do wonders when they're losing market share and profits.

[gilboman]

AWD is a good safety feature too, yet they don't make that a requirement for making the safetest vehicles list.

And the also rans list, way to write an article?? Why are those related to the top rated vehicles when they have Poor rear protection?

not really...esc is much much more effective in preventing accident than AWD