Pickups Sustain Costly Damage in Tests
Pickup trucks have the image of being rugged and dependable, but a study released Tuesday found that some popular small pickups are also susceptible to sizable damage in 5-mph crash tests.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that the Toyota Tacoma, little brother to Toyota’s T-100 full-size truck, led the way, sustaining $4,361 in damages over four low-speed tests.
The best of the lot, the Chevrolet S-10 LS, had $2,246 in damage. The other trucks tested by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety were the Ford Ranger XLT ($2,952 in total damages), the Dodge Dakota Sport ($3,863) and the Nissan Frontier XE ($3,867).
The institute, which is sponsored by the insurance industry, said the trucks sustained the damage because most are equipped with rigid bumpers. By contrast, cars have bumpers that contain energy-absorbing materials such as foam.
“People may think that pickup trucks are tough. But they quickly find out this isn’t true when they bump into something at a slow speed and then have to shell out thousands of dollars to repair the damage,” said Adrian Lund, the institute’s senior vice president.
Truck makers took issue with the test results, as well as the group conducting them.
“The Tacoma meets all the general requirements for crash worthiness,” said Julie Alfonso, spokeswoman for Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc. Last year, the Japanese company’s unit sold 145,911 Tacomas.
Kyle Johnson, spokesman for General Motors, maker of the Chevrolet S-10, said the institute was releasing the data as part of a campaign to get the federal government to raise the bumper standard to 5 mph. It was at that speed in the early 1980s.
“The insurance industry is once again staging dramatizations in its selfish concern over bumper repair costs,” said Johnson.
Before changing the speed, he said, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration studied the issue and determined that 2.5-mph bumpers were sufficient when weighed against the added cost of equipping passenger cars with 5-mph bumpers.
