Uh-oh, smart fortwo gets not-the-best crash test ratings

[SVOboy]

Check out the story at ABG.

Even though the Smart ForTwo is a great looking and popular car, there's just not a lot of places for crash impact energy to go in a vehicle this small. This is part of the reason that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, when it announced crash test results for the ForTwo on Thursday, issued some lackluster ratings and a "safety concern" footnote to report a door coming unlatched during a side crash. Overall, the 2008 ForTwo scored four stars for the driver in a front impact, three for a passenger in the same situation, five and three for resisting rolling over. These results are neither great nor amazingly bad, writes Harry Stoffer in Automotive News, and it bears repeating that the front impact scores only compare similar-sized vehicles hitting each other. Not sure how the ForTwo would handle a Escalade at 100mph.

[Arminius]

Yep.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ju6t-yyoU8s

I think the future will dictate that there be roads and highways that are designated "small car only" zones.

[DifferentPointofView]

The cabin may be fine... but how about the trasfer of energy to your head and body... that's the thing I've always questioned. and they're right, no matter what the vehicle, a sudden stop like that isn't good for your internal organs at all.. especially the vital ones.

[mpgvalues]

I think thats the thing that scares me the most about micro cars, especially here in Michigan where I live. We have a lot, and I mean alot of trucks on the road. The grilles usually come up to your head if you in a small car. Now, if 90% of the vehicles on the road were sedans, compacts, etc it would not be as much of a big deal.

[MetroMPG]

Hi mpgvalues - out of curiousity, what are you driving now?

[DifferentPointofView]

I'm pretty sure my bumper comes up to my friends head in his geo. He says he feels a lot safer in my vehicle cause he says we can ram everything out of the way and with his doors where the windows don't even touch the seals and leaks water, and it being a convertible with a gross vehicle weight of like 2200 pounds full... and it's about the size of a go-cart.. I think the top of my grille is where his roof should be if it were a hard-top.

[Arminius]

I can tell you that you sure sit a lot higher in a Smart than in a Civic.

[DifferentPointofView]

yea, but when you hit, you basically hit with your face in the bumper. not a whole lot of front end to absorb the crash :/

[Arminius]

True.