The Insurance Institute of Highway Safety is always striving to test and rate car safety to protect drivers on the road and their newly developed test will further that mission. However, it seems that the top luxury brands are not passing the new test with flying colors.

Ideas for the test came from years of analyzing front end vehicle crashes, which 10,000 people die in a year in the U.S. The new test crashes the front end of the vehicle, about 25% of it, into a 5-foot long barrier while going 40 mph. This is meant to simulate the impact a driver would incur if struck by another car or ran into tree. The results illustrate that the side airbags of the car which are triggered by direct T-bone accidents and not off center frontal, potentially may not activate in time or expand enough to protect those in the vehicle, (Luxury cars do poorly in new crash tests, Dee-Ann Durbin, Associated Press, Detroit Free Press, http://www.freep.com/article/20120814/BUSINESS01/120814016/Luxury-cars-do-poorly-in-new-crash-tests).

Eleven 2012 models thus far have underwent this new testing, with only three coming out with good or acceptable results, which are the Acura TL, Volvo S60 and the Infiniti G. Of the other eight, half received moderate ratings and the other half poor. The vehicles that received moderate included Acura TSX, BMW 3 Series, Lincoln MKZ, and Volkswagen CC, those with poor were the Audi A4, Lexus ES 350, Mercedes C-Class, and the Lexus IS 250. 

To give you an idea of what constitutes as poor test results the BMW, Volkswagen and Mercedes seat belts all spooled too much therefore resulting in the test dummies smashing into hard interiors. On the Volkswagen the door itself completely clipped off, (Luxury cars do poorly in new crash tests, Dee-Ann Durbin, Associated Press, Detroit Free Press).

The auto industry always looks to the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety tests and results when developing new models as they set the standard for vehicle safety. The institute will be changing its measurements of safety for its top picks to reflect that of the new test.