Comments on: IIHS Releases Top Picks

By: John Horner

John Horner — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 15:19:28 +0000

Excellent point psarhjinian, Ford has made good use of the safety engineering talents it acquired by buying Volvo. GM, on the other hand, has absolutely nothing to show for it shameful handling of Saab.

By: psarhjinian

psarhjinian — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 12:11:39 +0000

Good catch on the GM quadruplets. SAAB 9-3s were two of the others (sedan und convert). Pretty sad.

You know what’s sad about that? The 9-3 has been a best pick since it debuted in 2003. And it was the first Epsilon car, suceeded by the Malibu, G6, Aura and Malibu again.

You’d think they’d transfer some of that knowledge at least to the later Epsilons, if not to the rest of the line.

By: psarhjinian

psarhjinian — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 12:07:25 +0000

Most of the otherwise-good cars that aren’t nabbing best picks are doing so because of the seat and headrest design (see Toyota and GM for examples). These cars are otherwise (usually) good performers and yes, I agree with the above poster that they need to raise the bar a little.

I don’t like insurance companies, but this is one instance you can probably trust them. Property compensation claims are much cheaper than medical care and ongoing treatment: if they say a car is safe, they’ve got a vested financial interest in doing so.

By: Bunter1

Bunter1 — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 12:06:17 +0000

Kudos to Ford and “Wow” to Honda.

Good catch on the GM quadruplets. SAAB 9-3s were two of the others (sedan und convert). Pretty sad.

Toyota’s showing is not impressive, but as they have far fewer models than GM and didn’t need so much badge-engineering to get them it probably is about 3 to 4 times better showing.

Cryslur? Waddayaexpect?

Hope Ford makes it. They are becoming a good well rounded car producer. Mulally should go to congress with big charts showing his companies safety and reliability improvements and flat say “We are doing something”-and let the other two swim if they can.

Bunter

By: Demetri

Demetri — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 04:35:44 +0000

They consider the Fit a “minicar”? Apparently they’ve never been to Europe or Japan.

By: RedStapler

RedStapler — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 04:07:51 +0000

Just goes to show how far we have come in making cars safer. Now the distracted fools who operate them is another matter.

Sounds like it is time for IIHS to raise the bar.

This is becoming Lake Wobegon with all of the “Above Average” 5 star ratings.

By: no_slushbox

no_slushbox — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 00:52:15 +0000

N8iveVA:

Acura’s sales suck because Honda’s are so good. I don’t know why anyone would get any Honda sedan higher than the Civic Si, the Civic is an amazing car.

Giving Honda’s engineering capabilities I’m pretty sure that BMW is paying them a lot of money not to make Acura rear-wheel-drive.

By: Jeff Puthuff

Jeff Puthuff — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 00:47:40 +0000

Toyota continues the pattern of mimicking GM with only eight top picks of it’s own

missed one…

By: John Horner

John Horner — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 00:33:59 +0000

OzLobo, thanks for the correction. The irregularities of my native tongue continue to trip me up. Nearly every other possessive uses the apostrophe. Argh.

By: jgh

jgh — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 23:38:19 +0000

Kudos to Ford. Must. Keep. Working. Now they just need to bolster the fleet with all desirable models to generate buzz and dealer traffic.

Anybody notice how the GM Lambda quartet are now called “Large SUVs”? Kind of marginalizes the incremental gains they were seeking in image.

By: Porsche986

Porsche986 — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 23:38:14 +0000

Ford does deserve credit in this regard. Their quality appears to be improving and safety is obviously a center of excellence. Good job.

Now, GM, Chrysler, and Toyota should be ashamed of themselves…

By: olivehead

olivehead — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 23:22:46 +0000

i’m happy to see ford’s success in this regard. recently i decided to trade in my rear-ended 2007 accord on a 2009 model. i considered a fusion given the $3,500 rebate at the time, but couldn’t find much to choose from even given at least 5 dealerships in a 10 mile radius. i don’t know if other’s beat me to the punch or if corporate just isn’t sending them many cars. a couple dealerships looked like they were in the midst of a going out of business sale. so i ended up back at honda. my point is, it’s going to take a lot to save this floundering ship.

By: N8iveVA

N8iveVA — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 23:21:29 +0000

no_slushbox
Honda is doing so well that something bad has to happen.

maybe that would be the crashing sales of their hideous Acura lineup. :P

By: alex_rashev

alex_rashev — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 23:05:10 +0000

Key winner for Honda:

Minivans
Honda Odyssey

That one alone will make sales (and not necessarily of Odyssey).

Looks like Ford needs to up their compact game, as everybody and their dog have a winning entry there. Just another example of how badly current Focus needs a serious update.

Ignoring that, it’s good PR and a good piece of information to bring on Dec. 2nd, to grab some much-needed low-interest loans and prevent the other two from getting even a rusty penny.

And to think that just 3 years ago Ford was the least likely company to survive. Incredible.

By: no_slushbox

no_slushbox — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 22:41:54 +0000

Honda is doing so well that something bad has to happen. Maybe Godzilla will crush their headquarters and kill all their engineers.

By: Justin Berkowitz

Justin Berkowitz — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 22:37:51 +0000

@OzLobo:

Its fixed up their in the post. You’re input is appreciated.

Har har.

By: BrucknerPacific

BrucknerPacific — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 22:33:27 +0000

Good for Ford. It’s too bad that they haven’t been able to do a better a job on their successes.

By: OzLobo

OzLobo — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 22:26:12 +0000

You used ‘it’s’ twice in this post when you meant ‘its’.

‘it’s’ is a contraction of ‘it is’.

‘its’ is the possessive form of ‘it’.

Update: Thanks for fixing that, Justin!