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Sport Utility Vehicles Improve in Crash Tests

Aired July 09, 2002 - 14:26   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you. Turning to safety on the road now. The latest high-speed crash tests reveal stark improvements in the safety of small sport utility vehicles. Our Kathleen Koch joins us from the insurance industry crash test site in Ruckersville, Virginia with the details. How did it pan out, Kathleen?

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, what they tested this time is small SUVs, either brand-new ones or redesigned ones. And they rated them on their safety, on their performance, either good, acceptable, marginal or poor, and again, the good news is they all did really well.

Let's take a look at how they fared. The 2002 Honda CR-V. The 2003 Subaru Forester, the 2002 Saturn VUE, they were all rated good. The 2002 Land Rover Freelander was rated acceptable. Now, The Honda CR-V, this vehicle here, was redesigned.

Let's look at how it did in its crash test. Now what we're watching is its 2002 crash tests, where it really did quite well. Now, that's versus 1998, when it was rated only marginal. It really made a huge improvement.

Let's take a look at the crash test for a second vehicle, that's the Land Rover Freelander. Now the Land Rover had a few problems. If you could see the difference in the two crash tests, the land rover had a lot more movement of the crash test dummy. Now with me is David Zuby, with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

David, what was the problem with what we saw in the crash test, the movement there?

DAVID ZUBY, INSURANCE INSTITUTE FOR HIGHWAY SAFETY: The Freelander did a pretty good job. We rate the structure good. But the restraints and kinematics aspect of the performance was rated poor, mainly because there was too much lateral movement of the dummy, the steering wheel moved upwards, and you can see how it finishes in almost a horizontal orientation there, very close to the dummy's chest.

Not a really bad result but something that causes enough concern that we didn't feel comfortable giving it the best rating.

KOCH: Now the seat looks like it's been pushed up from the floor and angled forward. Is that a problem? ZUBY: Yes, exactly. Despite pretty good standard intrusion measurements, we notice some buckling under the seat -- under the seat that tips the seat forward, and that had something to do with this dummy's poor movement.

KOCH: Now, this car, though, interestingly enough, was one that was rated very well in the crash test you released last week, and those were the low-speed ones. And this one did quite well with bumper performance but the others didn't dough so well, or do I have them backwards?

ZUBY: Yes, actually the best performing in the low-speeds was the Subaru Forester. The Land Rover Discovery and the Honda CR-V, which, the Honda CR-V being the best performer in this high-speed off site crash, those two vehicles did poorly in the bumper tests, racking up on average $1,000 per five-mile-an-hour crash damage.

KOCH: All right. David Zuby, thank you. All this important for consumers to keep in mind, and if they would like more information on these SUVs and on other vehicles on how they perform safetywise, they can go to the Insurance Institute's Web site at highwaysafety.org. Back to you, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Kathleen Koch, thank you.

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