After reviewing the crash test results from various vehicles to decide on which vehicle is the safetest. What I found out is vehicle such as Volvo or Mercedes (some models not all) performs basically same as mid size US car while most of Japanese vehicle perform somewhat better than basic US design vehicle such as Cavalier/Sunfire. Please refer to Crash test link pasted below. For example:
Chest deceleration drv= 44g pass=44g
Chest deceleration drv= 54g; pass=48g
Chest deceleration drv= 42g pass= 41g
Chest deceleration drv= 51g, pass=48g
Chest deceleration drv= 46g; pass= 41g
Chest deceleration drv=45g; pass=53g
Chest deceleration drv 42g; pass=36g
Chest deceleration for drv=45g; pass=42g
Looking at this short list, if reliability or cost of ownership is not important, I would say Toyota Corolla and Saturn 2003 Ion are not so bad interm of Chest Deceleration "G" force value follow by 2000 Sunfire Coupe or Saturn LS2002 (still 1g more for the driver). Volvo S70 performs not so bad even it receive a 5 stars rating but Chest deceleration "G" is much higher than Saturn Ion or Toyota Corolla while Sunfire sedan and Toyota Echo from my view is not acceptable.
So, I have a few questions:
1> Am I right to use only Chest Deceleration "G" results as a guideline for frontal collision? 2> Why would the driver and passenger have two diff. Chest Deceleration value? 3> It appears that vehicle weight does not matter as the design of the body damper the effect, or is it?Please share your view Paul