The Toyota Camry and Toyota Rav4 performed very well in crash-test results released on Sunday. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the Toyotas received "Good" ratings for both front and side collisions. Meanwhile, the side-airbag-equipped Dodge Caliber scored only "Marginal" marks for side-impact protection. How do these crash tests work?
They ram the cars into barriers, and vice-versa. Both the Insurance Institute and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration use front- and side-impact tests to rate new cars. For the front crash, the vehicles are propelled into fixed barriers that are designed to crumple the way the front of a real car might. For the side crash, the car stands still while a crushable barrier is propelled into its side.
Testers at the Insurance Institute buy two cars of a given model from dealer lots. They then drain the electrolyte from the batteries and replace the gasoline in the tanks and fuel lines with a testing solution that poses less risk of catching fire. At the end of a simulated crash, they can measure the risk of a fire in real-world conditions by checking how much of the fake gas spilled out of the car.
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