Small Pickups More Popular, Less Safe |
| Published: July 24, 2008, 1:05 am |
| Tags: car buying, ford, jim mateja, nissan, safety, toyota |
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As gas prices top $4 a gallon, some consumers have turned to compact and midsize pickups rather than full-size models that devour gas. "Unfortunately, they won't find any that afford state-of-the-art crash protection," Adrian Lund, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, said in releasing results of the agency's first side-impact crash tests on small trucks. Side impacts are the second most common type of fatal crash, killing almost 9,000 people in 2006. Small trucks usually don't get the latest safety systems standard because most are long in the tooth and aging in terms of underlying technology, as attention is instead focused on next-generation full-size models that account for the most profit for automakers. Ford, for example, may only offer the Ranger for a couple more years. That model hasn't been significantly altered in more than a decade. "Until they improve, most small pickups aren't good choices for people looking [ Full article ] |
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