Chevy Spark Only Minicar to Pass IIHS Small-Overlap Crash Test

by TTAC Staff

Updated: February 18th, 2014 Published: January 23rd, 2014

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety tested a dozen of the smallest cars on American roads with the rigorous new small-overlap crash test and according to Automotive News, all but the Chevrolet Spark performed poorly in the test. The small-overlap test is supposed to recreate collisions when the front corner of one vehicle strikes an immobile object or another vehicle. The test is performed with the driver’s side of the vehicle’s front end hitting a barrier at 40 MPH. It is considered a more stringent test because the front crush zone is missed and much of the crash energy is directed in to the passenger compartment, sometimes causing it to collapse.

To earn the IIHS’ “top safety pick” award, the institute is now requiring vehicles to perform well on the offset test. Because of that change, a number of former top safety picks were dropped from that ranking.

The IIHS tested the Spark, Mazda2, Kia Rio, Toyota Yaris, 2014 Ford Fiesta, 2014 Mitsubishi Mirage, Nissan Versa, Toyota Prius C, Hyundai Accent, Fiat 500 and Honda Fit. The worst results were from the Honda Fit and the Fiat 500 with both of those cars’ passenger compartments being “seriously compromise” by structures intruding into the safety cell. The Fiat 500’s driver side door was torn off of it’s hinges during the test, raising the possibility of people getting ejected from the car in the event of a serious collision. Though the Chevy Spark’s structure did intrude into the passenger compartment, that intrusion was limited to the upper parts of the passenger cell and the vehicle earned good injury measurements for all body regions of the crash dummies.

Most of the injuries recorded by the crash test dummies involved the driver’s left leg. However, in the Fiat 500, the Honda Fit and the Hyundai Accent there were also injuries higher up on the driver’s leg, with the left thigh or hip being affected. In the Fit and 500, there was also an increase risk of injury to the driver’s right leg as well.

#ChevySpark #CrashTesting #IIHS #IihsTopSafetyPicks #SmallOverlapCrashTest #SmallOverlapTest

TTAC Staff

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Kyree on Jan 23, 2014

It's worth noting that Volvo's cars---which all pass the small overlap test with flying colors---seem to shear off the affected wheel. Also, what's up with Toyota? Even the 2014 Highlander, which is quite a large vehicle, only scored an "Acceptable" rating for this test. And everyone's favorite compact car, the 2014 Mazda3, did remarkably well, so that's good.

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- Steevkay on Jan 23, 2014
  
  Interesting. So what I infer from this is that Volvos don't have other structures intruding into the passenger compartment as much as these other cars. I wonder if other manufacturers have noted this; if I'm in a bad accident, I won't car if my car lost its wheel, but I will care if my leg is broken.
  
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APaGttH on Jan 23, 2014

So the Chevy Spark, albeit a penalty box on wheels like every other A-segment car available in the United States, is a good penalty box on wheels and the only one that can provide real protection in a real world, severe off-set crash. In other news, Hell froze over today with the news that General Motors is actually building decent small cars like the Spark, Sonic, Encore, Cruse and Verano. Satan was quoted saying, "what the Hell happened up there," at the sudden plunge of temperatures. The Dark Lord has ordered a crack team of demons to investigate this alternate plane cooling, that some theorize has been caused by excess CO2 emissions from the fire and brimstone pits that run unabated in Hell, others are more skeptical...

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