New Honda Civic Scores Low In Safety Test

Ouch.

Considering the NHTSA are more lenient than the EuroNCAP, I wonder how it fared in European tests?

Bearing in mind the European tests would involve the Euro-Civic hatch.

It seems the new Civic has not yet been assessed by EuroNCAP.

The 2001 Civic was given four out of five stars overall.

They aren't called tin cans for nothing. There is a reason why German cars usually tend to be heavier in their respective classes.

Well, cut Honda some slack. The thing looks like the Starship Enterprise. It has SHIELDS to protect it...

:p

I hear VW is giving classes in crashworthness, there still may be a seat left for Honda to attend.

This is what I've always talked about with a lot of these Japanese cars.. People talk about build quality..they build good engines, but their bodies are a different story.. Audis 3 model ranges (the A8 is typically not tested, but you can deduce from the other 3) are all top rated. VW's Passat Jetta and Golf are all top rated. Toyota that sells millions of cars and has a shitload of models but can't make one car that will ace the tests. Only this year's IS made it through out the IIHS tests (see hwysafety.org) out of all the Lexus models out there. The worse thing is that these guys are actually regressing..most manufacturers improve year after year.. Anyway, that's what you get when you build cars out of used soda cans to save money.. What a joke..

Ouch is right. There are cars without side air bags that do better in that test than the brand new Civic did.

jakemiller- Genius is just stating facts. The Japanese typically build reliable cars, but you get in a wreck, and you could quite easily fare far worse than you thought you would. The high quality of these marquees does necessarily not transfer over to safety. So I guess you can weigh your odds, save your self a repair or two, in trade for a possible short term hospital trip.

Are you feeling lucky?

hah, let's see the your Chevy Cobalt or Ford Focus try to get any better.

The Chevy Cobalt and Ford Focus score just about the same in crash tests aznstuart....Let's face facts folks, smaller cars are still behind on crash tests in side impact. Again it cracks me up to see on here people comparing $40K Audis to $16K Honda Civics.... When you look at all the models in a segment, The Civic coupe is actually better in front impacts (5 stars) than its competitors.... The Civic 4 door is even better Getting 4 stars in side and 5 everywhere else. Now VW is the best all around though their models tend to be pricey....($22K for a loaded Rabbit 4 door compared to $18K for Civic EX 4 door with same equipment). And to The GENIUS....Toyota's Corolla scores 4 stars in side impact and 5 stars front. So it is just as good....As for comparision Audi's A4 got 4 stars in front tests... worse than the Honda Civic and Corolla. SO people, please do maybe a lil bit of research before commenting and posting. NHTSA has a great site that show pics and how many stars and is easy to use and look at.

atomicbri- Look at the Rabbit, Jetta and Beetle scores, 5 stars vs. the Civics 3. That tells you something in the different levels of engineering between the Germans and the Japanese. Safety needs to be there even in the lower models, not just the top ones. The driver of a Civic deserve to live without the chance of a life changing head injury just like a VW owner can.

I know I said VW is the best all around....I just said their cars are pricier...(I would prefer to buy a VW over a Honda anyway) I was just commenting on how on these blogs people wanna compare apples to oranges so often... Now the Civic 4 door gets better results 5 stars front crash, 4 stars side front 5 stars side rear... VW Jetta/Rabbit only get 4 stars front crash and 5 stars side impact (front and rear)

if you want crash safety, buy a renault (if you can)
i think all of their model range has a 5* ENCAP score.
that's pretty good, especially with the clio, modus and megane (all fairly small cars)
on euroncap, the 2003 corolla faired as well as the 1998 golf.
4*.
we crash the cars into solid concrete at 40 mph, sideays into poles at 17, sieways into blocks at 30, into pedestrians at 25.
pedestrian score is the only one that is given seperatley.
is ncap tougher than the american one?
do you have scores or pedestrian protection?

*for pedestrian protection

Interestingly, the Honda Civic got a "Gold, Top Safety Pick" from the Insurance Institute.
http://www.iihs.org/ratings/rating.aspx?id=605

For reference, here's a quick comparison list of other cars.

http://www.iihs.org/ratings/default.aspx