Saab, Subaru smashing success

SUBARU'S Liberty and Saab's 9-5 excelled in recent crash tests conducted in the US and Europe respectively.

The Liberty - known as the Legacy in the US - was the only vehicle to score a "good" rating among seven mid-size sedans subjected to a 64km/h front offset crash test by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).

"The occupant compartment, or safety cage, of the Legacy (Liberty) held together extremely well, and most injury measurements recorded on the crash test dummy were low," IIHS president Mr Brian O'Neill said.

Daewoo's Leganza scored the worst rating with a high risk of serious injury or death, according to the IIHS - a non-profit group funded by automobile insurers.

Mazda's 626 was among a group of four cars that scored an "acceptable" rating.

In earlier tests carried out on mid-size sedans, Toyota's Camry scored a "good" rating.

Meanwhile, Saab's 9-5 has been nominated the safest car ever tested by Euro NCAP (New Car Assessment Program), earning the maximum four-star rating in the latest round of tests on premium luxury cars.

The 9-5 eclipsed the Volvo S80 and S70, Mercedes-Benz E-class, Audi A6 and BMW 5 Series in the tests, which involved front and side impact collisions.

Saab's smaller 9-3 also earned the maximum four-star rating.

Nevertheless, the Swedish manufacturer says crash tests are not a conclusive measure of a vehicle's safety in collisions.

"We develop our cars so that they will be as safe as possible in actual traffic accidents," Saab's head of collision safety development, Mr Roger Malkusson, said.

"So we assign the greatest value to collision safety studies made on the basis of realities, such as those run by Folksam in Sweden.

"The excellent results we recorded in the latest Euro NCAP tests are obviously heartening, particularly because of the public importance given to them."