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CNN Live Saturday

How to Interpret Vehicle Crash Test Ratings

Aired March 23, 2002 - 22:21   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back everyone. So you're in the market for a new car straight off the showroom floor or perhaps from the used car lot, the questions you ask are still the same -- how much does it cost, how well does it handle, is it safe.

To answer this questions we often look to the experts and we'll show you their results from time to time. In fact, just this past week, the Insurance Institute From Highway Safety had its bumper test results out. One shows that the 2002 Kia Sedona was one of the worst performers in their test.

But wait a minute, this is the same vehicle that received a five- star rating, that's the government's highest, in another series of crash tests that were conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration known as the NHTSA. So who do you believe? Here to help us sort it all out is someone who really knows, Warren Brown. He's been covering the automobile industry for the "Washington Post" since 1982. And I bet he's a car lover from way back. He's joining us this evening to sort it all out for us.

Thanks for being with us.

WARREN BROWN, "WASHINGTON POST": Good to be here, Catherine. How are you?

CALLAWAY: I'm doing great. I'm still a little confused by some of this crash test results out there. They can't seem to get on the same page.

BROWN: Well, actually, the tests are really complimentary, but the auto companies are like elementary school students, you see? A kid gets maybe an "A" in English, but a "D" in mathematics and he comes home and he brags about the "A" in English and he ignores the mathematics. It doesn't mean that he's a dumb kid, but it basically just doesn't tell the whole story.

CALLAWAY: Yeah, it's all about the spin, isn't it?

BROWN: Exactly, it's all about the spin. And the whole story is this -- you have, essentially, five basic crash tests. Three performed by the Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Actually, two performed by the Highway Traffic Safety Administration with one rollover, crash test rating system, which isn't really a test, it's just a rating system. And then, you have two performed by the Insurance Institute For Highway Safety, which acts on behalf of the nations' big insurance companies.

Now, the three done by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration include the frontal -- full frontal crash test, which is designed primarily to see how well the seat belts perform and the air bags perform. And the second one is -- they have been doing since 1997 and 1999 -- is a side impact crash test, which is the designed to mimic you being hit in a stationary car sort of at an intersection.

The Insurance Institute For Highway Safety has a slightly more severe test. Actually, it's a much more severe test. It's called a frontal offset test. It's run at 40 miles per hour in which the car basically strikes what we call a deformable barrier at a 40-degree angle.

Now, what's important about this test is that with the full frontal test, the one run by the Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the car -- the front end of the car takes the full grunt of the crash and so do the crash forces are distributed more or less evenly and with little damage to the -- taps into the compartment.

With the Insurance Institute For Highway Safety's tests, the full force of the crash is on a much smaller portion of the car, about maybe 40 percent of the car, which basically can cause many cars, trucks to buckle and intrude into their passenger cabin. And what the Highway Traffic -- the Insurance Institute tries to do is determine how well as car avoids doing that, protruding into the passenger cabin.

CALLAWAY: All right that helps explain it a lot, but still -- you know, I hear Insurance Institute and I have to wonder is it all about money and repairing these cars?

BROWN: Well, you have altruism mixed with money, which is the case with most things in life. For example, it would take the five- mile per hour bumper test done by the Insurance Institute, many people mistake that it's being a safety test. It is not a safety test. It is basically done to determine how much damage will be done to your car.

CALLAWAY: Right.

BROWN: If lots of damage is done to your car, for example, the Kia Sedona, $4,305 worth of damage in four five mile per hour bumper crashes. Well, the insurance companies don't like that because you might pay -- you might pay a little bit money up front...

CALLAWAY: Yeah, but it costs them lots of money to...

BROWN: It costs them a lot more money. It costs them a lot more money.

CALLAWAY: Yeah, but you bring that up again. So I'll ask you the question we pose at the beginning of this segment. This same car received five star ratings from another administration, the Highway Traffic Safety Administration. So you know, are you safer the Sedona? BROWN: Well, it's -- well, basically, with the Sedona came up -- for example, in a Highway Traffic -- in the Insurance Institute test, the Sedona got an acceptable rating for the most sever test, which is the -which is the frontal -- outset frontal crash test.

Now, in the Highway Traffic Safety Administration's tests, the government's tests, it got a five star rating, which basically means that you have about maybe less -- an 11 percent chance or less of receiving serious injury in the Sedona in a full frontal crash. The two crashes are entirely different. One absorbs most of the impact of the crash, fully, you know, across the, you know, front of the car.

CALLAWAY: Right, right.

BROWN: The other, you know, takes the brunt of the crash on a smaller angle of the car, forcing its deployment and go through into the passenger cabin.

CALLAWAY: All right, Mr. Brown, we're running out of time.

BROWN: Sure.

CALLAWAY: And I want to make sure people out there, the consumers out there, who want to know. So we would explain the differences in some of the tests. It's all about not just looking at the ratings, but reading what the test was.

BROWN: You have to read -- you have to understand what the tests are.

CALLAWAY: Right.

BROWN: And actually, you can go to -- we'll give out a Web site here -- www.nhtsa.cot.gov and click on crash test. You get the whole story there. And for the Insurance Institute, www.iihs.org and click on their crash test site and you'll get the information there as well.

CALLAWAY: All right.

BROWN: That should help you out.

CALLAWAY: Yeah, it should. Mr. Brown, Warren Brown, with the "Washington Post" thank you very much for straightening all that out for us. I feel...

BROWN: Sure thing.

CALLAWAY: ... I feel like I know what to do now. You just got to read more. See, it's always more research, more research. But we're aware. That's part about being a smart consumer. Thank you very much, Mr. Brown.

BROWN: Sure thing, take care.

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