Chevy Spark Wins Safety Pick Award for 2014!

 The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety announced the car crash results of its 2014 sub-compact segment. These small vehicles have been rated as the worst performing group of any evaluated so far.

Chevrolet Spark comes out top for 2014

Only the Chevrolet Spark achieved an acceptable rating in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s (IIHS) small overlap front crash test out of 11 tested small cars.

The small overlap test replicates what happens when the front corner of a vehicle collides with another vehicle or an object such as a tree or utility pipe. In the test, 25% of a vehicle’s front end on the driver’s side strikes a rigid barrier at 64 km/h.

According to the report, the test is more difficult that the head on-on crashes conducted by the government or the longstanding IIHS moderate lap test because most of the vehicle’s front-end crush zone is bypassed. Which makes it hard for the vehicle to manage crash energy, and as a result causing the occupant compartment to collapse.

“Small, lightweight vehicles have an inherent safety disadvantage. That’s why it’s even more important to choose one with the best occupant protection,” IIHS senior vice president for vehicle research Joe Nolan said in a statement.

“Unfortunately, as a group, mini-cars aren’t performing as well as other vehicle categories in the small overlap crash.”

Even with the Top Safety Pick designation, the Spark still only managed to score an “acceptable” rating. It lost points in the small overlap crash test, an area that proved to be even more shattering for the rest of the segment.

The results are as follows: