Adrian Lund Good Quotations

Results for (the Rav4) show manufacturers can provide good protection for occupants in the two most common kinds of serious crashes,

People think of head restraints as headrests, but they're not. They're important safety devices. You're more likely to need the protection of a good head restraint in a collision than the other safety devices in your vehicle because rear-end collisions are so common.

Ford has been doing a good job with some of its recent seat designs such as those in the Freestyle SUV and Five Hundred sedan. But the new Ranger head restraint is more than three inches below the top of the head of an average-size man. This means it won't begin to provide adequate protection for many taller people in rear-end crashes. It's puzzling why Ford decided that buyers of the new Ranger should get less protection against whiplash than people in some of its other vehicles.

In each of the top-performing minivans, the curtain airbags did a good job of keeping the dummies' heads from being struck by the intruding barrier. This is important because head injuries are factors in many serious side impact crashes, especially when the striking vehicle is a pickup or SUV with a tall front end.

In the frontal test, the driver's side of the vehicle needs to absorb the energy of the crash and keep the occupant compartment intact, ... The Freestyle's performance is what we like to see. A driver in a real-world crash of this severity would be likely to sustain only minor injuries. The Freestyle is a good performer and a 'best pick' in the frontal test.

The Fusion is a disappointment because it's a brand new design. Ford has done a good job with some other recent models, but the Fusion is at the back of the pack among midsize sedans for overall safety performance.