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Smaller Cars Endure Big Problems On Crash Test

In a crash test of 11 of the smallest cars on the market, only one vehicle received an acceptable rating. The rest received marginal or poor ratings in the study, providing evidence that supports a widely held notion that smaller cars are among the least safe on the road. No other vehicle group has performed as poorly on a new crash test than these mini cars, says the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the nonprofit group that conducted the testing. The latest results of which were released Wednesday. The Chevrolet Spark was the only car earning an overall "acceptable" rating on the small-front overlap test, and even that vehicle had its shortcomings, IIHS said. "Small lightweight vehicles have an inherent safety disadvantage," said Joe Nolan, the senior vice president for vehicle research at IIHS. "That's why it's even more important to choose one with the best occupant protection. Unfortunately, as a group, minicars aren't performing as well as other vehicle categories." The Mazda2, Kia Rio, Toyota Yaris and certain Ford Fiesta models all received "marginal" overall grades on the test, while the Mitsubishi Mirage, Nissan Versa, Toyota Prius C, Hyundai Accent, Fiat 500 and Honda Fit all earned "poor" ratings. Results from these sub-compact cars fare much worse than vehicles sized just a little bit bigger, IIHS said. Among 17 cars evaluated in the small category, five earned "good" ratings and five more earned "acceptable." Only introduced a year ago, the small-front overlap test has quickly become a key indicator of differences in automotive safety. IIHS introduced it as a way to replicate what happens when the front corner of a vehicle collides with a tree or utility pole at 40 miles per hour. In the real world, these sorts of accidents are more dangerous than others, in part because they bypass the front-end crush zones on most cars. TOP 5Most Researched Sedans 2013 Honda Accord MSRP : $21,680 2013 Hyundai Sonata MSRP : $20,895 2013 Nissan Altima MSRP : $21,760 2014 Honda Accord MSRP : $21,955 2013 Toyota Corolla MSRP : $16,230 Automakers have been rushing to make design changes to the front ends of their cars. Without a grade of acceptable or better, they cannot qualify for the IIHS' overall Top Safety Pick+ honor, given annually to the safest models on the market.

Anti-purist 1963 Ferrari GTE sports hot rod Chevy V8

I remember reading a story around the time Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift came out. It focused on one of the star cars of that film, a 1967 Ford Mustang fastback that started the film as a shell, and in a pinch, was transformed into a modified masterpiece, complete with the RB26DETT engine from a Nissan Skyline GT-R (which started the film under the hood of an S15 Silvia). There was a genuine (and in our minds, absurd) fear in the article that taking a piece of classic American iron and fitting a twin-turbocharged JDM engine would result in some awful trend in the classic car community. If you thought a GT-R-powered classic Mustang was sacrilege, though, this car will probably make you vomit. For the rest of us, it's a neat piece of engineering. Shown above is a 1963 Ferrari 250 GTE, and yes, that's a 302-cubic-inch, small-block Chevrolet V8 under the hood. On top of that, it uses the six-speed manual transmission from a Viper, a nine-inch Ford rear end, and Mitsubishi-sourced paint. So yeah, it's a FrankenFerrari. Check out Road Heads' interview with this custom GTE's owner, which is followed by a brief test drive. And of course, head into Comments afterwards, and let us know what you think. Is this Yankee-powered 250 GTE blasphemous or badass?

NHTSA investigating nearly 750,000 GM models over non-deploying airbags

Nearly 750,000 vehicles built by Chevrolet, GMC, and Cadillac are the subject of a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) investigation due to non-deploying driver-side airbags. While the investigation is ongoing, the agency believes the issue is likely due to rust particles that form on the inflator's connection terminal interface. The list of nameplates included in the investigation includes Chevrolet's Silverado, Tahoe, and Suburban, GMC's Sierra, Yukon, and Yukon XL, plus Cadillac's Escalade, Escalade ESV, CT4, CT5, and XT4. All of the potentially affected vehicles are 2020 or 2021 models, according to a bulletin published on the NHTSA's website. Investigators launched the probe in April 2021 after 15 consumers reported airbag-related issues, including nine who said an airbag malfunction light appeared in the instrument cluster. More alarmingly, the NHTSA is aware of six accidents that caused significant damage to the car's front end yet didn't trigger the driver's airbag. It adds that there are no fatalities linked to the issue, but there are six crashes and eight injuries reportedly blamed on it. No evidence suggests this problem is related to the millions of potentially deadly Takata inflators recalled over the past few years. General Motors is aware of the defect. It sent a technical service bulletin (TSB) to its dealers in March 2021 to address the aforementioned warning light. The note explains the issue is due to "rust particles in the connection terminal interface of the driver's airbag inflator." The company hasn't issued a safety recall yet, however. Whether it will partially depends on the NHTSA's findings. It's currently looking into the scope and the severity of the problem, and it wants to understand its implications on driver safety. Investigators will decide whether General Motors needs to recall the 749,312 cars that are part of the probe when they close their investigation. General Motors has already spent a significant amount of money replacing defective airbag-related parts in its cars. In November 2020, it was ordered by the American government to recall nearly 6 million pickup trucks and SUVs equipped with potentially dangerous Takata airbag inflators. It repeatedly argued that testing proved the inflators were safe, and it petitioned the agency four times starting in 2016 to avoid a recall, which cost an estimated $1.2 billion (about a third of its net income in 2020).