The smallest car sold in America has been crash tested by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), earning the highest rating of Good for both frontal offset and side-impact protection. Previously, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) had tested the Smart, giving it four stars of five for driver, three stars for the passenger, and five stars for side impact. Both organizations noted that the driver’s door became unlatched during the side test, citing potential risk though no related injuries occurred in the testing.
This good performance is impressive for such a small car--one that measures 40 inches shorter than a Mini Cooper. There is very little crush space, putting greater reliance on the performance of the safety belts. The driver’s head did pass through the airbag in the IIHS frontal test, though head measures did not indicate a significant injury was likely.
As with all front crash tests, the results are only comparable to models in the same class. However, there are no other “microcars” sold in the United States.
A stiff structure and seat-mounted side airbags are credited to protecting the dummy in the side-impact test, which uses a moving barrier configured with the height and weight of a midsized SUV.
“The big question from consumers is, ‘How safe is it?’”, says Institute president Adrian Lund. “All things being equal in safety, bigger and heavier is always better. But among the smallest cars, the engineers of the Smart did their homework and designed a high level of safety into a very small package.”
Research Smart in the buyer’s guide, complete with pricing, specifications, and photo galleries. Read our 2008 Smart ForTwo review.