Small trucks do poorly in crash tests

(chinatrucks.com, Feb.12, 2010)Nissan Frontier tops IIHS crash tests while Chevy Colorado bottoms out

Certain body styles aren't the best for crash protection. Minivans are inherently abhorrent, and pickup trucks are only slightly better. It appears, though, that despite being steel drums with wheels, minivans have made significant gains in passenger protection while pickup trucks haven't, at least from the latest release by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).

The IIHS tested five compact pickup trucks for both rollover and side impact crashes recently, and they didn't fare well.

"As a group, small pickups aren't performing as well as small cars or small SUVs in all of the Institute's safety tests," said IIHS senior vice president David Zuby. "None of the ones we tested is a top-notch performer across the board."

Kudos to Nissan and its Frontier for getting a "Good" rating for rollover protection and, considering its age, praise must be paid to Ford for its miraculous Ranger which received an "Acceptable" rating. The Chevy Colorado (and we might as well throw the identical twin GMC Canyon into the mix too, even though it wasn't tested specifically), however, only got a "Marginal" rating, as did the midsize Dodge Dakota and, gulp, seemingly solid as a rock Toyota Tacoma.

If Toyota didn't already have enough woes, the segment's best-selling pickup truck is only "Marginal" in rollover protection, although it made up for this in side impact crash tests where it joined the Ranger and Frontier for a "Good" rating. The Colorado? Brace yourselves (literally) compact Chevrolet pickup truck owners, as it received the lowest possible score of "Poor."

You might have noticed that the Dakota isn't mentioned above, and that's because its optional side airbags failed to deploy during testing. That's right. According to Chrysler it was a software problem and it's working to remedy the situation, at which point the IIHS will retest the truck and give its stamp of approval, or disapproval.

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