2 of 13 small SUVs do well in crash tests
A 2014 Subaru Forester goes through a crash test conducted to test safety in small sport utility vehicles. The Forester was highly rated by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Credit: AP
Only two of 13 small SUVs performed well in front-end crash tests done by an insurance industry group, with several popular models faring poorly in the evaluations.
But fast-selling models such as the Ford Escape, Honda CR-V and Jeep Wrangler received only "marginal" or "poor" ratings from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
SUVs, mostly midsize and smaller, accounted for almost a fourth of all vehicles registered on Long Island in a 2011 survey done for Newsday by the Michigan auto statistics company R.L. Polk & Co. It found 622,711 SUVs registered in Nassau and Suffolk counties -- or 24.2 percent of the total of 2,569,978 cars, trucks and small motor homes.
In the safety study, the new Ford Escape, the top-selling small SUV so far this year, got a "poor" overall rating, while Honda's CR-V, the No. 2 seller, got a "marginal" rating.
Other SUVs getting "poor" ratings were the Jeep Patriot, Buick Encore, Kia Sportage and Hyundai Tuscson, the institute said. The BMW X1, Nissan Rogue, Mazda CX-5, Volkswagen Tiguan and Jeep Wrangler two-door all got "marginal" ratings. With Tom Incantalupo
