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Filed under: Car Buying , Maintenance , Economy , Safety , Ford click above image to view high-res gallery of the 2008 Ford Focus SES Coupe Reminding us once again that there's more than meets the eye when shopping for a vehicle are recent impact tests performed by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety that measure how much it costs to fix a vehicle after after a low-speed accident. Sure, we're all interested in safety and styling, but we should also be concerned with how much these low-speed impacts will cost to repair. The winner of the testing was the Ford Focus , which scored light damage all the way around. The IIHS heaped praise on Ford for designing a bumper that can truly take a bump -- a novel idea. Amazingly, some small cars like the Hyundai Elantra, Toyota Prius and VW Rabbit cost up to a third of the car's worth to fix from damage resulting from a minor impact. That's a big problem for any car, but especially so for those sold on the merits of economy. To...
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Filed under: Safety , Crossovers/CUVs , Ford Click above for a high-res gallery of the Ford Flex. Ford has made safety one of its top priorities, and its efforts have paid off. Not only does the Blue Oval have more five-star crash rated vehicles than any other automaker, but it's added another notch to its safety belt with NHTSA giving the Flex five stars for both front and side impact tests. A front crash impact score of five stars means that there is a 10% or less chance of serious injury at 35 mph, and the five star side impact score indicates a 5% chance of serious injury at 38.5 mph. The Flex comes standard with dual front air bags, headliner mounted side curtain air bags, traction and stability control, and tire pressure monitoring, which helps with NHTSA scoring. The Flex also received four stars for rollover protection, tying the CUV for best in class in the crossover segment. With a Volvo-derived platform and plenty of heft, we're not surprised the Flex achieved a five...
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Filed under: Safety , Videos , Ford Hit the jump to view more high res images of Ford's VIRTTEX simulator Ford already boasts has the most five-star crash rated cars and trucks of any automaker, and now the automaker is looking to take the next step by avoiding crashes all together. Technologies like adaptive cruise control, blind spot detectors, and traffic alert will help prevent collisions from ever happening, but testing these technologies can be dangerous. For that reason, Ford uses a simulator to present real-life driving conditions to real drivers without any risk of accident or injury. Ford's Virtual Test Track Experiment, or VIRTTEX, is a very realistic simulator that gives advanced technology researchers real driving data to help refine safety technology. The large spherical bubble houses a full-size Taurus-X that is loaded with computers and cameras. The driver is surrounded by video screens and five projectors that show front, side and rear views, making the test driver...
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Filed under: Trucks/Pickups , Safety , Ford , Pontiac For those of you interested in picking up one of the new Pontiac G8 ST utes when they come to the US next year there's good news. In a recent round of ute/pickup crash testing in Australia, the Holden Commodore Ute beat all comers to score five stars. No competitor matched the lofty score. The Ford Ranger-based Mazda BT50 got three stars while the Indian Mahindra pickup only managed two. The Mahindra currently doesn't have airbags, which hurt its scores. Look for that to change before Mahindra launches its trucks and SUVs in the US a couple of years from now. For the time being, however, if you plan on driving into any barriers, you'll want to go for the El Camino wannabe. Gallery: Holden VE Ute Gallery: 2010 Pontiac G8 Sport Truck [Source: Drive.com.au ] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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