Knight-Errant
New member
Even the IIHS web site supports the argument I've been making...
Frontal crash tests
"Frontal crash test results can't be used to compare vehicle performance across weight classes. That's because the kinetic energy involved in the moderate overlap and small overlap frontal tests depends on the speed and weight of the test vehicle. Thus, the crash is more severe for heavier vehicles.
Given equivalent frontal ratings, the heavier of two vehicles usually offers better protection in real-world crashes. In 2009, IIHS demonstrated this principle with a series of tests in which small cars were crashed into larger cars, all of which had good frontal ratings in the moderate overlap test."
So...while a big truck is more likely to fail the test, it is actually safer in the real world because of the weight.
There is a reason why they don't test larger trucks (except for the F-150 none are rated)....they'd all fail, there is just too much mass to stop, and much of that mass is in the frame which keeps moving forward since contact isn't made with the solid barrier. There isn't a real good cost effective way to solve that problem. Everyone knows this (the public, the manufactures, and the government), but rather than subjecting them to the small overlap test and causing a stir in the media they let it be...because they're still going to be safer than cars in an actual collision, and the fatality data supports this.
Safety ratings
Look, if there was a way to cost effectively engineer the safety into a 4runner that would be great and I'd be all for it, but for the 5th gen they've only sold 50-70k of them a year, frankly that is pretty tough to do and I've argued that it may not even be necessary.
In comparison the f-150 sold 71k in August of 2015 alone...it is much easier to try to engineer safety into a into a high volume new model that was built from scratch (the new F-150 which also has an aluminum body, which is stiffer than steel, and constructed differently...I don't know enough about the construction of the f-150 to comment on it), than it is to engineer safety into a lower volume model (4runner) that is based on an old frame (at least from 2009, perhaps older...I'm not going to do all that searching).
Physics and practical considerations are both coming together here. There isn't much on the side of the 4runner that is structural; you have a plastic bumper, a tire, a large wheel well for wheel articulation, and some thin body sheet metal....the modifications needed to make it pass the test, and still keep it a 4runner (meaning body on frame, off road ability) would be tremendously expensive.
If the safety is an issue for a person, then don't buy it, there are plenty of other vehicles out there that get better ratings in the small overlap test. Plenty of other vehicles that are safer family vehicles, and more practical family vehicles.
I bought the 4runner because it is good for camping and outdoor activities; it can handle rough roads. I like the looks and I think its is fun. It got decent crash test ratings except for small overlap, and since I think it is a test that doesn't make sense, that didn't affect my decision. I think the odds of me clipping a tree or concrete barrier on the drivers side are pretty much zero. I know that if I clip a car/truck coming the other direction, his car will crumple too unlike the solid barrier in the test. I don't speed, I don't drink and drive, I don't text. I stay alert and focused when I drive. I look at other cars and try to anticipate what they'll do. If I'm tired I pull over and take a break, maybe get some coffee. If there is bad weather (heavy rain, poor visibility) I stay home; I stock up on food so I don't need to drive in the snow. I know what roads are more dangerous or are busier and I can avoid them. I memorize where the dangerous intersections are locally. If roads are icy and snowy, I work from home (I realize this isn't an option for most). All of this has kept me far safer than a passing rating on a very specific controlled test.
The 4runner isn't a death trap. It gets good passing rating on the tests it was engineered for, at the time it was engineered for them. The small overlap test is a new test, and a very difficult one to pass for a car, even more so for a truck. It is difficult (near impossible) to engineer the front end of an older BOF vehicle to pass the test, maybe if you're starting from scratch, but not on a truck that is already in existence. Tests and standards evolve. The fact that it does poorly on one test doesn't concern me terribly because of the real world facts about driving a larger BOF vehicle. Maybe they can do it on the re-design if they really want to, but it won't happen on the 5th gen.
Here are a bunch of articles where the driver of the 4runner died because he or she wasn't wearing a seat belt....like I said in an earlier post, no 5star crash test will protect the driver if he just doesn't do something simple like buckle up. As I also stated, if you remove the people that aren't wearing seat belts in their truck based SUV or pickup from the fatality stats, they probably look even safer.
http://www.wtvq.com/2015/09/09/update-ksp-identifies-man-killed-in-i-75-crash/
http://gazette.com/one-dies-after-weekend-crash-in-colorado-springs/article/1561973
http://www.codyenterprise.com/news/local/article_59c6f38a-7da2-11e5-bb9a-338f9ed123bd.html
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