Dear Car Talk:
I was recently in a bad car accident when our rental car collided with a bison at the north rim of the Grand Canyon. We were very fortunate to walk away from a totaled car with all the air bags deployed.
This got me thinking about my car, which is an old 2005 Toyota Camry SE. Are older cars less safe in an accident than newer cars? How do the crash tests from 2005 compare with the crash tests in 2023? Are the results comparable?
My Camry comes up with better crash tests than the Nissan Kicks we totaled, but I wonder if this means it is actually safer in an accident. Any insight you may have would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. — Beth
Did you run into a 2005 bison or a 2023 bison, Beth?
It’s a complicated question. We’ve found that most car makers build their cars specifically to pass the crash tests. So how safe a car is depends directly on how the car was being tested in that era.
In the years since 2005, the tests have evolved. The primary differences are that, in 2005, the side impact and rear impact tests had just recently been introduced. So, companies probably worked to improve their side and rear impact scores in the years after that.
And in fact, you’ll see that the new Camry has a much better side impact score than your Camry.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also added a roof-strength test in 2009, and in 2012 added a “front offset” test. That measures how a car does when the front corner of the car hits an object, like a telephone pole. Or a bison.
Such crashes are actually pretty common — you’re heading toward something and try to veer away, but you can’t, and you hit it with the front corner of your car. It presented a new challenge to automakers, because that type of crash jolts passengers both forward and to the side at the same time. So safer cars certainly resulted from that.
If you decide to buy a new car today, NHTSA (NHTSA.gov) and Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (iihs.org) results will reflect how the car did on all of those newer tests.
A new car will also have more modern, electronic safety features, like automatic emergency bison braking, which helps prevent some crashes and reduces the speed at which others happen.
So, I don’t think your Camry is “unsafe.” But I think it’s fair to say a newer car that achieves a “top safety pick plus” award, and has all the current electronic safety options (low and high-speed automatic emergency braking, lane departure warning, blind spot monitoring, etc.) would be safer.
Now let’s end this answer with a moment of silence for both the Nissan Kicks and the bison. I’m glad you came through it well, Beth. Next time, try to hit something less dense.
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