October 6th, 2009 · No Comments

Green Right Now Reports

Ever wonder about how smart those smart cars would be in a crash?

Seeing the pint-sized vehicles cruising through the valley of SUVs that still dominate US roads, it’s a question that comes to mind.

SmartUSA is aware of consumers’ safety concerns and addresses them in a page on its website: “The smart fortwo meets or exceeds all federal government crash test standards, including a 5-star side crash rating, and the highest scores for front and side crash worthiness and roof strength from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.”

The company also hosts a website call safeandsmart.com where owners post stories about real-life safety outcomes. One happy guy gushes that his smart vehicle survived, mostly intact, being slammed by a large truck.

But perhaps nothing makes the car company’s case  better than the picture posted on the micro car’s website demonstrating the car’s roof strength.

See the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration  test results for more info on the smart fortwo.

See also this Consumer Reports article on the initial safety tests of the 2008 model. It reports that the car resists impacts quite well, but flags the fact that small cars tend to spin around in traffic after a collision, movement that’s not replicated in the head-on NHTSA test crashes, and yet dangerous in real-life situations.

The CR article notes that the smart fortwo is the safest of the micro cars, but…it’s still a micro car.