Saab 9-5 Named Top Safety Picks USA Today

2011-06-17

Volkswagen CC and Saab 9-5 Named Top Safety Picks USA Today (http://www.usatoday.com/) reports that the Saab 9-5 and the Volkswagen CC have been named Top Safety Picks by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). The Saab passed all the of the IIHS' tests. But the CC comes with an asterisk. The front-wheel-drive version of the CC, a swoopy, cool-looking car, garnered top honors. The all-wheel-drive version flunked the roof-strength test, IIHS says. The front-wheel-drive CC's roof can support more than four times the car's weight. But the all-wheel-drive car has a heavier drivetrain, meaning the roof would have to be stronger to have gotten the top roof-crush rating. CC isn't alone. The BMW 3 series, Chevrolet Impala (those built after July 2010), Infiniti G, and Lexus IS 250/350 also snagged acceptable ratings in the roof strength test. In the case of a rollover, The Lexus ES 350 provides top protection on the roof, although it gets a "marginal" rating for rear crash protection. The rollover safety test consists of measuring the maximum force supported by the roof when a metal plate is pushed against the corner of the vehicle's roof. Then a strength-to-weight ratio is calculated. Read the rest of USA Today's coverage of the latest IIHS Top Safety Picks by pasting this link in your browser (http://content.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/post/2011/06/volkswagen-cc-saab-9-5-iihs-insurance-institute-for-highway-safety/1?loc=interstitialskip).