July24
With the recent spike in fuel prices, many shoppers are now considering smaller, more efficient pickup trucks. However, a new report finds that small pickup buyers should be just as wary about safety as they are about fuel economy.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety recently tested small pickups for side-impact safety, and the results were not exactly as expected. Of the five pickups tested – the Toyota Tacoma, Dodge Dakota, Chevrolet Colorado, Ford Ranger and Nissan Frontier – only the Tacoma earned the Institute’s top rating of ‘good.’ The Dakota, Ranger and Frontier all earned ratings of ‘marginal,’ while the Colorado received the IIHS’ lowest rating of ‘poor’ (the barrier actually hit the dummy’s head). Side-impact crashes are the second most common type of fatal crashes.
Of the five trucks, only the Tacoma was tested with side airbags due to the IIHS’ policies. If a vehicle has optional side air bags, the IIHS will test the vehicle without the side airbags. However, automakers have the option of a second test with a vehicle that does have side airbags, given the automaker reimburses the institute for the cost of the second vehicle. Dodge, Chevrolet and Nissan all declined that option, while the Ranger doesn’t even offer side airbags as an option.
Stability control is another safety feature glaringly omitted from most pickups, with only 12 percent of all pickups coming standard with some form of stability control. In contrast, 95 percent of all SUVs come standard with stability control.
According to the IIHS, small pickup trucks have the highest driver death rates of any vehicles on the road, including minicars.
Toyota is the safest - great.
Does anyone really buy a ranger anymore? The only update I see on that car, is the removal of exterior sheet metal for plastic. Maybe that’s why it scored so low.
Does anyone really care about this? If you want to be coddled with safety and a million airbags buy a Volvo. If you need to do some hauling… buy a truck.
Rangers still sell pretty well as fleet vehicles. They’re nice enough if you need a basic truck to do some work with. They are smaller and more manouverable than any of their competition… and they get better fuel mileage too. Ranger is really the only one left that I would call a “small” pickup. The Colorado/Canyon is straddling the line… and the Dakota, Frontier, & Tacoma are freakin huge.
If we are to get real about safety I honestly think we should have made helmet laws for cars, required racing style seats and harnesses. Way safer, cheaper, less complex and lighter then airbags. Crazy?
Wow…could GM’s smaller trucks be any more lackluster? Half-assed engines, half-assed interior, half-assed towing, half-assed styling, half-assed build quality, and now half-assed crashworthiness.
GM needs its next-generation compact pickups to be MUCH better.
The sad part is……
The Colorado IS the “Next-Generation” of trucks.
And MUCH better than the S-10!
That Toyota would dominate here is hardly a surprise.
DrFill
Ya know shaver… I don’t see why someone hasn’t mentioned that before.
DrFill, take a high road. Do we need another ihustle here?
Toyota just has standard airbags, if you care about afety you can get them in the domestics. You have to compare them all with air bags.
I’m all for four-point seat belts, they are more comfortable than three-pointers anyways. 99% of women would NOT wear a helmet and would essentially pay the “hair tax” that would result of fining women for not wearing helmets in a car.
I’ve always thought the Canyon/Colorado to be the lookers of the bunch. An ex-workmate of mine bought one with the 5 cyl, 5 spd and performance wheel/suspension package. In Torch Red it looked very sharp, and the performance certainly isn’t lackluster. Of all of them the Dakota is by far the homeliest. I haven’t seen one yet in any trim level that doesn’t look like it just rolled out the ugly factory.
The Colorado would be nicer if GM would just shove the 4.2L I-6 under the hood. Who the heck buys a truck with a 5-cylinder engine?
The S-10 was a deattrap (as was the blazer/Jimmy/Bravada) so it’s no surprise that the Colorado/Canyon are as well. GM isn’t known for building safe vehicles (outside of Saab). I don’t remember if it was MT or C&D, but basically during their review of the Colorado, they mentioned something along the lines of (It was like they weren’t even trying to compete here”
Yet another pathetic offering from the mighty General. Proving once again that GM is a leader of nothing.
Ford just announced that the Ranger will continue on through 2011—so if you don’t like the Ranger, get used to seeing it for three more years.
I think all of you guys are absolutely right. All domestics were drunk on large or extra large trucks and totally lost site of everything else. They were making 10-15 grand on each prehistoric large truck without much mods with minimum of beautification. Why bother with products that don’t produce same returns?
RaineMan: The new ‘09 Coloado and Canyon will now offer the 5.3 V8 as an option.
” 2009 CHEVROLET COLORADO
New for 2009
* 5.3L V-8 available on extended and crew cab models
* Improved brake system
* StabiliTrak electronic stability control system is standard on all models
* Fuel system control module for improved fuel economy – up to 25 mpg on the highway with the 2.9L engine
* New ZQ8 sport suspension
* Z71: higher stance, larger wheel/tire combination for improved appearance and off-road maneuverability
* Sixteen-inch steel wheels replace 15-inch steel wheels on Work Truck models
* New family of 16-inch, 17-inch and 18-inch wheels for LT models
* Standard bedliner with Fleet Delete package
* Exterior trim revisions
* Two new exterior colors: Deep Navy and Aqua Blue Metallic
* XM Satellite Radio standard on LT
* Carpet and cloth seats now standard on WT
* 1VL Value Package on extended and crew cabs”
“2009 GMC CANYON
New for 2009
* 5.3L V-8 available on extended and crew cab models
* Improved brake system
* StabiliTrak electronic stability control system is standard on all models
* Fuel system control module for improved fuel economy – up to 25 mpg on the highway with the 2.9L engine
* New ZQ8 sport suspension
* Z71: higher stance, larger wheel/tire combination for improved appearance and off-road maneuverability
* Sixteen-inch steel wheels replace 15-inch steel wheels on Work Truck models
* New family of 16-inch, 17-inch and 18-inch wheels for SLE and SLT models
* Standard bedliner with Fleet Delete package
* Exterior trim revisions
* Two new exterior colors: Navy Blue and Aqua Blue Metallic
* XM Satellite Radio standard on SLE and SLT
* Carpet and cloth seats now standard on Work Truck”
GM small pickups are garbage. This is coming from a Corvette driver. Toyota Small Trucks > GM Small Trucks. Period. No comparison. End of story.
so don’t crash ‘em
They all suck balls.
The Toyota is too big, too thirsty, too expensive, V6 eats premium, the bed is plastic (try and put a lumber rack or 5th wheel on that).
The Nissan is too big, too thirsty, too expensive, too ugly and no reg cab.
The Ranger is right size but as outdated as a Mahindra p’up.
The GM clones are very durable but the interior is horrible the the 4 cyl is rough and thirsty the 5 is underpowered and they need more gears in manual and auto trannies.
The dakota is so big and expensive it has no place beneath the Ram, and its unrefined and hideous.
There are fundamental problems with the design of small and medium-size trucks that no amount of airbags or other fixes will overcome. High center of gravity, leaf-spring suspensions, slow turn rate, large wheel diameter, extremely poor weight distribution. By the time you fixed all of those problems you would not have a truck. What they need is a reboot of what a truck is and what it does — you need something with an adaptive suspension, lower to the ground, four-wheel steering. Yes, I am describing a Warthog. Just put the lumber rack in place of the autogun turret.
Damn…ouch. Now I know, stay away from small pick-ups…
shaver, I couldn’t have summed it up better myself. All of your reasons above (and now gas prices) are why I never got back into a 4×4 compact or mid-size truck despite desire. No one makes a good all-around truck for a good price. If what rms492 posted above is correct then that’s a good start for the Canyon/Colorado twins, but I never really liked the interior or exterior styling.
The Tacoma was tested with Side Airbags, The Nissan Dodge and Chevrolet were tested without. so as of right now this test is really not a good comparison between these trucks. I’m not sure why the IIHS even tests cars without side airbags, because no car or truck without side airbags has tested well in the side impact tests. the Chevrolet/GMC still woudn’t be great even with the side airbags but at least the test would be more like apples to apples. That being said, Toyota seems to take safety more seriously than some of the other manufacturers. But at Toyota prices that would be expected.