Pickup Trucks, SUVs Not So Rugged in Bumper Tests

Pickups and sport-utility vehicles might look tough, but seven models that recently were crashed into poles for low-speed bumper tests proved to be cream puffs.

Of the 2001 models tested by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, only Ford Motor Co.’s small Escape SUV, a crossover built on a car-like unit-body chassis, earned an acceptable rating for crash-worthiness.

After undergoing four separate crash tests at 5 mph--two frontal and two from the rear--the other six models all sustained extensive damage that would require costly repairs. The institute’s tests don’t rate the vehicles for safety and are designed to determine the repair bills after a vehicle is driven or backed into barriers and metal poles at parking-lot speeds.

The full-size pickups tested were the Chevrolet Silverado, the Ford F-150, the Toyota Tundra and the Dodge Ram. the sport-utilities, in addition to the Escape, were Hyundai Motor Co.’s new Santa Fe and Toyota Motor Co.’s redesigned RAV4.

The large pickups’ crash performance ranged “from poor to awful,” said Adrian Lund, the insurance-industry-funded research institute’s chief operating officer. Average damage per test ranged from $1,085 for the Chevrolet to $2,006 for the Dodge. The RAV4 earned the worst marks of the SUVs, with average damage of $2,003, because its bumpers collapsed, resulting in substantial damage to sheet metal, headlamp and taillight fixtures and the rear tailgate glass, Lund said.

“Manufacturers tell potential buyers they can drive these pickups and SUVs anywhere adventure leads them. But consumers can expect big repair bills if they’re unlucky enough to bump their so-called rugged vehicles into something at slow speeds,” he said.