And the Ford F-150 SuperCab was the only truck to receive a “good” overall rating and to be named a “Top Safety Pick” by the IIHS.
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The Ford F-150 SuperCrew and SuperCab Overall Scores remain unchanged because we assume good crash test performance and only penalize for low scores, rather than reward for good ones.
Ford is the leader amongst makers of large pickup trucks as far as protecting people in a number of different types of crashes and in offering technology to warn their drivers of imminent front end crashes, said a vice president with the IIHS.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety tested the F-150 SuperCab as well as two body styles of pickups each from General Motors Co., Toyota Motor Corp. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NA.
The IIHS says for a vehicle to qualify for a 2016 Top Safety Pick, it must earn good ratings in the five crashworthiness tests, and an advanced or superior rating for front crash prevention.
The tests by the insurer-funded group are created to show what happens to a vehicle’s structure and its occupants when its front corner strikes another vehicle or a stationary object like a tree. The IIHS said that the marginal ratings were also given in the latest round of tests to a model from GM and Toyota. Of the models examined, the F- 150, both of the Silverados, and the Tundra Double Cab scored “Good”, but the Tundra CrewMax only rated “Acceptable”, while both of the Ram trucks only managed “Marginal”. It made a decision to test each after discovering previous year that Ford’s extended cab, or SuperCab, couldn’t pass the toughest test while the larger SuperCab could.
Of the eight other half-ton pickups IIHS tested, three earned an overall rating of acceptable – the Silverado, Sierra and Tundra double cabs. The Ram 1500 crew and quad cabs also received poor scores for structure, and lower leg and foot areas, making them the lowest-scoring vehicles in the segment.
Fiat Chrysler responded to the results by pointing to the limits of the test.
Ford hathe ves since made improvements so now both pass. Crew cabs have four doors and two full rows of seats, while extended cabs have only small rear doors and narrow seats in the back.
“Drivers in these pickups would need help freeing their legs from the wreckage following a small overlap crash”. “Every FCA vehicle meets or exceeds all applicable motor-vehicle safety standards”.
In the Rams, the crash pushed the door-hinge pillar, instrument panel and steering column toward the dummy, while the dummy’s head rolled off the front airbag and came close to hitting the intruding windshield pillar.
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Last year, the 2015 F-150 crew cab got a Good rating in the small overlap test but the extended cab did not. A crushed roof can break window glass and doors and make it more likely that an unbelted occupant will be thrown from the vehicle. Just 77 percent of pickup occupants were observed using belts in a 2014 study, compared with 89 percent of people in vans and SUVs and 88 percent who were in cars.
