The IIHS recently released some more small overlap crash test results, and the Tucson was down near the bottom of the field in the small SUV class. There it joins the Sonata, which only did marginally better. Here are the footwells of both cars after said test:



Sonata:







Tucson:







And here are the videos of the tests. Yikes!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=px-h2ceeBzM



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s0Oq2SPu48



0/10 would not bang... into anything

 

https://www.hyundaiaftermarket.org/f...00#entry676600

 

About one in eight driver corpses are generated by narrow overlap crashes

 

I read a headline that only 2 small SUVs passed.

 

msrp for both is around 22k

 

If you introduce a new crash test that is very stringent, expect all cars to fail until the manufacturers have had a couple of model years to get to the next refresh of a body style. I am certain that it is a non-trivial exercise to get the car strong enough in the front to survive this type of collision without occupant injury. Like MAJOR structural change, stuff you just can't get into an existing chassis currently in production. Next year or two = next body style = engineers are probably already on the drawing board to meet the requirements of this test.



Until then, expect to keep seeing threads like this whenever somebody realizes anew that car crashes are bad, mmmkay?

 

Perhaps this will lead to development of better bracing/bars.



This test appears to have been designed to specifically target what appears to be obviously the weakest part of the car - just outside of the front crash bar, hitting the headlight that has nothing behind it except for an empty, hollow wheel well. And let's make the object a concrete barrier that forces the vehicle to take 100% of the impact.



The test was designed to make cars fail and bring attention to it. It does seem like a very plausible situation, drifting off to sleep on the interstate and veering off the road into a concrete barrier, bridge support, interstate median, etc.

 

Volkswagen and others revised the airbag computers to fire the curtain airbags. This will do until they release their new platforms. I make three points though:



1) volvo, saab, and VW tend to stay ahead of the game. Their existing models often blitz new crash tests. hyundai, chebby, toyota... not as proactive.



2) soz engineers, but consumers are allowed to be finnicky and pick the newest platforms.



3) these tests are introduced in order of relevance/road deaths. I believe dynamic rollover tests are the next ones in line.

 

shits about to get ugly then. I bump my head sometimes shifting around in my seat. Probably be DRT if the car rolled at speed. Sooooo.... I try to keep the greasy side down.