If you’re driving a Ford Escape or a Mitsubishi Outlander Sport, you may want to hop into a different set of wheels for the sake of your passenger.
In a new round of tests to light SUVs, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found the that Ford Escape and Mitsubishi Outlander Sport weren’t too kind to their passengers in the overlap crash protection test.
The test simulates a collision at 40 mph where only one-quarter of the vehicle is struck. It’s a great real-world test where it’s rare to find a collision with two vehicles striking each other head-on. Most drivers will try and avoid a collision, so will try to maneuver out of the way and only strike a portion of the oncoming car. Or there’s no car and they try and avoid a lamp post or a tree.
Either way, the test simulates either side of the car’s axle getting pushed in due to a crash. The IIHS tested seven small SUVs: the BMW X1, Chevrolet Equinox, GMC Terrain, Mitsubishi Outlander, Jeep Compass, Mitsubishi Outlander Sport, and Ford Escape. Of the seven, only the Mitsubishi Outlander Sport and Ford Escape stood out.
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The Ford Escape was particularly bad for the passenger. The IIHS found that the driver’s side of the vehicle held up fine, but the passenger side suffered structural damage that intruded into the passenger’s space. This is because Ford strengthened the driver’s side of the car but didn’t give the passenger the same treatment.
The IIHS concluded that the passenger would likely suffer hip injuries had it been a real person and not a dummy.
"Disparities like this one are why we decided to formally rate the passenger side in the small overlap test after five years of evaluating only the driver side," said Becky Mueller, a senior research engineer with the IIHS. "Manufacturers shouldn't shortchange protection for front-seat passengers."
The Outlander Sport didn’t fare much better, earning a “marginal” rating for the passenger wide while the Escape earned a “poor”.
Worst of all, neither the Sport nor the Escape’s passenger side curtain airbags deployed during the collision. This would also have increased the likelihood of head or neck injury in such a crash.
The Outlander Sport and Escape were worst in this round of testing, but the BMW X1 and regular Mitsubishi Outlander both earned Top Pick awards. So maybe switch to either of those if you own an Escape or Outlander Sport.