I guess I'm the list guy for this week

http://www.informedforlife.org/demos.../2007SCORE.pdf

Pg 5

This time the HHR is considered a "Medium Risk" Vehicle. All 2007 vehicles are rated on this site http://www.informedforlife.org/viewartcl.php?index=1

To quote the mission statement:


"This website provides a comprehensive approach to evaluating the relative safety of vehicles, utilizing National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) ratings and fatality data. The risk Index SCORE (Statistical Combination Of Risk Elements) demonstrates superior correlation with actual driver fatalities than any other safety evaluation method and you can learn its derivation and actual vehicle SCOREs on this website."

Three components are used to determine the scores. The third is the one I find most interesting as it deals with real world consequences.

"The 3rd component, vehicle incompatibility, is often not addressed directly, but is important since 59% of all traffic accidents involve more than one vehicle, and the laws of physics give the advantage to the heavier vehicle. The relationship between vehicle weight and fatality rate is well documented and must be included in any overall assessment of safety. A 2500 lb. car has double the fatality risk in multiple vehicle accidents as one weighing 4000 lbs. – when the other risk elements are the same. Additional weight, however, is not necessarily beneficial since heavier vehicles, especially SUVs and pickups, tend to ride high above the ground and have an attendant higher risk of rollover."

Sounds like a noble goal.

Anyway, weight class and what hits you/what you hit has a lot to do with injury, so it is a factor to be considered.

Our old Rainer rated worse and our Odyssey rates better. The Rainier is an SUV so the happenstance for rollover is much more real. Though it does have some preventative body roll measures that make it safer than is cousin the TrailBlazer. Our friends were hit from behind in their Trailblazer while stopped. They hit a wall at a slight angle and flipped upsidedown!

The HHR rates better than its competitor, the Pontiac Vibe. Both are light weight and I've owned both. I had a lot of trouble controlling the Pontiac when things got wet. No problems with th HHR for me.

Anyway, just some interesting reading on auto safety.
Me, I really like some of the extra assurance we get with the optional side/rear airbags. They are not an option anymore for me since I have little Katy to keep as safe as I can.



Ah, but then again, what do I know, I drive Corvairs!

 

The following organization is where the rubber meets the road for vehicle safety crash testing:

Insurance Institute for Highway Safety

http://www.iihs.org/


The HHR has not yet been rated by them. I am eager to see how it rates.

 

I have the side air bags in my HHR, but the one on this list is without them. I wonder how much the score would improve if they tested one with the side air bags.

 

I'd highly disagree. IIHS cares more about insurance payouts than they do about crashworthiness. They seem to think that because a vehicle crumples more in the front and rear and costs more to repair that correlates into a higher risk of injury to the occupants of the vehicle. They like to get that British guy on Dateline NBC (home of the rigged-for-pyrotechnics GM trucks) saying that they're saving lives and holding the auto manufacturers to account, but in reality none of their testing has been proven to save any lives and has actually raised the price and reduced the efficiency of many vehicles.

 

IIHS will probably never test the HHR, or if they do the HHR will never get better than a "Fair" rating from them because you can't get it with stability control (and TRACTION control doens't count.).

I say screw them. U.S. DOT gave it five stars. I lived through Stitch I's demise. I know the things are crashworthy.