[JTrujillo86]

i'd like to add:
"The new small overlap frontal test involves 25 percent of a vehicle’s front end striking a barrier straight ahead on the driver’s side, again at 40 m.p.h."

"The door was sheared off at the hinges on the Volkswagen CC, the first vehicle to be evaluated by the I.I.H.S. to completely lose its door, the authors noted. This raised the possibility that an occupant could be partly or completely ejected from that vehicle."

It's obvious that the results will be more drastic but this volkswagen is definately a shocker.

Ric

I saw these results this morning as well. While it's shocking to see a door sheered off, it's not necessarily due to a lack of safety on the part of the vehicle. If you watch closely as the car slams into the barrier and as the fender is ripped off, you can see there's nothing really "protecting" the hinges of the doors...on any of these cars. The frame of the car is essentially useless in this type of test, since the barrier rides on the outside of the frame as the car continues to move forward. The cars each do what they're meant to, which is maintain the safety cage around the occupants. This is a VERY specific type of test where the door hinges of all the cars have to take on way more force than they were designed for. Ultimately, I think any of those cars would have the doors ripped off if they were located in the exact same spot as the CC. It's not a VW specific problem, but rather something the industry needs to look as a whole with these new tests.

- Jeremy.