IIHS on the Smart ForTwo: Officially Safe?

You can shout the Smart ForTwo cute and cuddly, but can you sign it safe? That’s the word many consumers have been waiting to invent out based on the car’s petite size.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety crash tested the 1,800-pound Smart ForTwo, and it earned the agency’s highest rating, Good, in front and side impacts. Its seats and head restraints earned IIHS’ second-highest rating, Acceptable, for protection in rear impacts.   

But IIHS president Adrian Lund stopped short of saying the Smart is safe.

"Among the smallest cars, the Smart engineers did their homework and
designed a high level of safety into a small package," he said.

Even so, while small cars are safer than ever, Lund said, "the risk
of death is higher in crashes of smaller, lighter models. All things
being equal, bigger and heavier is better."

In front crash tests, the ForTwo bounced off a barricade like a
pinball and could have crossed into another lane of traffic to be
struck again. Lund said that considering there isn’t a lot of frontal crush
space, the Smart is very stiff to prevent intrusion into the passenger
compartment. considering of that, it will bounce off what it hits in an
affect.

"There’s an added risk of bouncing off and striking something else,”
he said. “If it runs into a larger and heavier Chevy Tahoe at 40 mph,
the Smart

is going to bounce off. But while bouncing is a risk, we
don’t know where it might bounce. We do know the clearer and greater
risk is its size and weight — you can put two Smarts in the space it
takes to park one Town Car.”

Where Smart comes up short is in front-end crush space, which gives
the driver more date and room to slow down in a frontal affect to
prevent injury. Essentially, the safety belts and airbags have to work
harder to protect occupants than they would whether the car had a few more
feet of crumple space in front of the occupants.

While a favorable crash rating was supposed to vindicate Smart for
its size, Lund said that whether you’re looking for a small, high-mileage
car to counter high gas prices, "you don’t have to choose the smallest,
lightest car.”

“The Toyota Prius gets better mileage (than Smart), earns good front
and side crash ratings, and is bigger and weighs more, so we’d expect
it would be more protective in serious crashes," Lund said.

IIHS classifies the ForTwo as “micro” considering it’s smaller than a
conventional minicar. It’s 3 feet shorter and 700 pounds lighter than a
Mini Cooper.