bbrowncods said:
Wild exaggerations are immature and add nothing to the discussion.
GRA, you are correct that the vehicle has met minimum certification requirements under U.S. regulations. Nissan can do better than that, and should do better than that. Other car companies have "Good" ratings with their cars on this "new test". Why can't Nissan?
I did look at Consumer Reports and the safety data prior to purchasing. I don't expect a bomb proof car, but I expect that when a safety flaw is discovered (as this test has), that it be corrected. A manufacturing flaw, or a design flaw are both the same in seriousness. Ask GM.
If Nissan will crush 200+ cars over 6 spot welds, I expect no less concern on their part over this.
The Leaf performed at a level just above the Mazda5 whose side airbag failed to deploy - next to last out of 12. Pitiful!
As mentioned already, but I think that this needs to be repeated, ALL cars that are sold new in this country must meet the NHTSA (government) crash tests. It is illegal to sell a new car here that does not meet that model year's safety and emissions standards.
The IIHS tests are sponsored by the insurance industry, and are above and beyond what the government requires. The insurance companies do that to help set rates for new cars by predicting repair and injury costs. Car companies will often go out of their way to advertise a good rating, but it is not required.
I was at my local Nissan dealer yesterday and a service technician spent perhaps 30 minutes trying to reassure the owner of a new Leaf whom I could see holding a printout of the recent IIHS tests. The owner claimed what you are, and that the car is no longer safe. Well, it is safe as of the standards in place at the time of its design. It is not "defective" as you claim.
No carmaker will ever tell you that their cars are "safe" because that is a relative term. If a cement truck full of concrete topples onto you, there is no car in existence that will protect you. They (under the watchful eye of their lawyers) will only state how the car did in certain tests.
As far as the 6 welds being missing from 200 cars, the reason that there was a recall lwas because with those welds missing, the car no longer met the safety parameters in place at the time the car was designed. It may still have met the NHTSA standard, but not the standards Nissan has intended for the car.
I personally think there's a bad side to designing a car to meet the ever increasing standards of IIHS. All those safety structures and active safety systems like air bags and stability control add cost and weight to the car. Has anybody noticed how roof pillars are getting massive? I have, and it makes seeing out of the car much more difficult. The visibility (especially when backing) out of my 2006 Audi A3 is far superior to that of the Leaf.
It seems like we are slowly replacing being able to drive safely and actively avoiding accidents with an expectation that the car take care of it for us. I'm not sure I like that.