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IIHS Gives Buick Encore Poor Rating In Updated Moderate Overlap Front Test: Video

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) just updated its moderate overlap front test to include a greater emphasis on rear occupant safety. The 2021 through 2022 Buick Encore was among a batch of 15 crossovers tested in the updated evaluation, and one of nine models to receive a “Poor” overall rating.

The original IIHS moderate overlap front test included a Hybrid III dummy representing an average-size man positioned in the driver seat, with the vehicle tested colliding with a barrier at 40 mph. The vehicle would strike the barrier with 40 percent of the total vehicle width on the driver’s side, thus simulating a frontal offset crash between two vehicles of the same weight, each traveling a little under 40 mph.

Originally launched in 1995, all vehicles now earn a good rating in the original test. However, according to an IIHS study of real-world crashes, back-seat passengers are more likely to be severely injured than front-seat occupants. Automakers have added airbags and advanced seat belt systems to the front of vehicles, but not in the rear, and as a result, belted passengers in the rear seat carry a 46 percent greater chance of fatal injury than front belted passengers.

To address this, the updated IIHS moderate overlap front test now incorporates a second Hybrid III dummy to represent a small woman or 12-year-old child on the second-row bench behind the driver, with the intent of studying how moderate overlap collisions affect rear-seated passengers.

In the updated test, nine of the 15 crossovers tested received a “Poor” overall rating, including the 2021 through 2022 Buick Encore. The 2021 through 2023 Chevy Equinox also received a “Poor” overall rating.

Further test results for the Buick Encore included a “Good” rating for the structure and safety cage, driver head and neck injury, driver chest injury, driver knee and thigh injury, driver leg and foot injury, and driver restraints and kinematics evaluations, plus a “Marginal” rating for the rear passenger head and neck injury and rear passenger restraints and kinematics evaluations. The Buick Encore also received a “Good” rating in the rear passenger thigh injury evaluation, and a “Poor” rating in the rear passenger chest injury evaluation.

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Jonathan is an automotive journalist based out of Southern California. He loves anything and everything on four wheels.

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Comments

  1. Bought the wife a new 2014 Encore. Nice enough car, but I never did like how “short-wheelbase squirrely” that car was on the highway.

    Reply
  2. Don’t really care for the Encore but why would any one trust an organization that has “Insurance” in its name. The only thing that is is worse than the insurance industry is the Government.

    Reply

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