2012 Mazda Mazda3 S Grand Touring Front Wheel Drive 2.5l I4 16v Automatic on 2040-cars

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Toddler survives 60-foot fall from apartment window, lands on car

REDMOND, Wash. — A 20-month-old boy survived a six-story fall from suburban Seattle apartment window after the toddler landed on the roof of a parked car that cushioned the impact of the plunge, authorities said. The toddler "landed in a way where the car absorbed enough of the impact that he was awake and crying when paramedics arrived" Wednesday afternoon, Redmond police spokesman James Perry told the KIRO television station. The boy was in serious but stable condition at a hospital. Just before the fall, the toddler was alone in a bedroom, while his mother and two siblings were in another room, Perry said. Investigators believe the boy propped himself on the edge of a window that was cracked open, pushed through a screen and tumbled about 60 feet. The owner of the Mazda sedan that the child fell on was amazed that the boy survived. Edward Lu told KOMO-TV that the only reason the car was there was because he had decided at the last minute to ride his bike to work that day. Had the car been gone, the boy would have landed on pavement. "That's a big dent," Lu said. "I couldn't believe it."

2020 Mazda CX-30 small crossover lands an IIHS Top Safety Pick rating

The 2020 Mazda CX-30 has come out of the gate swinging on the safety front, earning the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) Top Safety Pick award in its first year on the market.  Mazda's new baby crossover earned a "Good" rating in all six of the Institute's crashworthiness categories (driver-side small overlap front, passenger-side small overlap front, moderate overlap front, side, roof strength and head restraint) and its accident avoidance system was rated "Superior." Sadly, only one set of available headlights was rated "Acceptable" or better, which kept the CX-30 out of the running for the coveted Top Safety Pick+ award. The best-rated lamps available on the CX-30 are actually those that come standard. The curve-adaptive units offered as an optional upgrade were rated "Poor" due to excessive glare. For 2020, IIHS made the guidelines for earning Top Safety Pick and Top Safety Pick+ awards even more stringent. Up until 2019, cars needed only to earn an "Acceptable" rating in the passenger-side small overlap test to qualify for a Top Safety Pick. For 2020, that has been raised to "Good."   The bigger challenge for many OEMs will be headlights. To earn Top Safety Pick+, a vehicle cannot be sold with any headlight configuration that does not earn at least an "Acceptable" rating.    So far, fewer than two dozen 2020-model-year vehicles for sale in the U.S. have met the criteria for Top Safety Pick+; roughly half again as many qualify for the lesser award. In coming years, the Institute is expected to add even more conditions, especially in the realms of accident avoidance and pedestrian safety. 

Crash test videos show how rust compromises safety

These recently released Swedish videos serve as a reminder that rust isn't just a cosmetic flaw, when it comes to cars. The insurance company Folksam and the homeowner organization Villaagarnas Riksforbund gathered examples of two relatively popular, but by now rusty cars, and then performed crash tests with them at the Thatcham Research facility in Britain. The results are sobering. The rustier cars chosen for the tests were first-generation Mazda6s, cars that have a reputation for early-onset rust in salty surroundings, such as the Nordic countries in Europe or the Salt Belt in the U.S. The cars in the other end of the spectrum were fifth-generation Volkswagen Golfs, which thanks to their body treatment only really start to show rust at over ten years old. But rust isn't just on the surface, it goes bone deep. While the Mazda did decently well in Euro NCAP testing as a new car, there's now a 20 percent higher risk of death in the 2003-2008 Mazda due to the degradation of its bodyshell. In the rusty car, the chassis rail separates from the floor, the footwell ruptures, the sill gives way, the seat mountings move and the dummy's head hits the B-pillar; all important failures, despite Thatcham saying the cars actually performed better in the crashes than they expected with all the rust. But still, the corroded structure isn't able to transmit loads in the way it was originally designed to do. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. The Golf does significantly better — despite rust flakes flying when the Golf hits the wall — as the years have only caused it to lose a single point. An important thing to remember is that the cars aren't tested in comparison to corresponding new, 2018 cars: the tests are in reference to the crashworthiness standards in place when they were new. The cars' airbags inflate like they were supposed to, but on the Mazda the dummy's head bottoms out the airbag due to the car's structure failing, meaning the airbag cannot perform as designed. Driven cautiously, an older car is still mostly fine for driving around. But tests like these remind us that it's not enough that a car runs and drives, if the body has turned into Swedish knackebrod. And if you repair the visible rust and the structure underneath remains as compromised as ever, there's an ugly truth under all the bondo. Perhaps it isn't such a bad idea to have yearly roadworthiness inspections.