Watch Ram 1500 Fail Critical Crash Test

[Gorehamj]

John Goreham
Contributing Writer, GM-Trucks.com
4/12/2016

Our recent story listed the results of all full-size pickup trucks tested by the Insurance Institute For Highway Safety. We focused on the positive results in our main story, but Ram had a very bad day of testing. The small frontal overlap test simulates a pickup truck hitting a telephone pole with the front corner of the vehicle. Small economy cars like the Prius can ace this test. So too can cars in the mid-size class and all crossovers have models that can score "Good" on this test. In fact, it is difficult to find any car or crossover that does not score Good on this test. Watch the Ram results.

 

IIHS VP Raul Alberlaez mocked automakers for "Trying to one-up each other in ads on who build the toughest large pickup trucks." Speaking about the combined small frontal overlap results of the Ram, Tundra and Silverado, Alberlaez said a driver in one of these vehicles "...would need help freeing their legs from the wreckage." He went on to add "The injuries they sustained could require months of rehabilitation." Keep in mind that this is a test in which vehicles from all other classes including economy cars, and the Ford F-150 score Good, meaning the driver is not injured and there is no intrusion into the cabin.

See our prior story to see the full IIHS crash video results for large trucks.

[newdude]

"Ram Tough".

[darkfox1]

Wow.. I had one of these as a rental.. thank god I didn't have a wreck!

 

Also, that headlight skipped town the second things got real.

[KMGZ400]

Wow that is disturbing that a vehicle that new cant take a hit like that... Anyone have a Silverado or F150 video to compare?

 

Edit: never mind saw it in another post.

[pickmeup]

Ram tough as a can of spam.

[MikeNH]

The Chevy crew cabs got the same marginal overall score as the Ram. Very few vehicles do the small overlap test good that aren't new designs. It's a new test the IIHS dreamt up and when it came out pretty much everything failed it. The Ram is the oldest pickup out there now and it was designed before this test was used. Otherwise, it does pretty good in testing just like all the pickups do. Ford had to ace this after they got caught building more safety into crew cabs and leaving the other two cabs with far inferior crash protection last year. And I do think it's total crap to base any crash performance score on the electronic nannies (the Ford only getting the "top safety pick" with automated braking). Automated braking has zero effect on how well a vehicle crashes and that's misleading to the consumer.

[j-ten-ner]

Neah...it's not dreamed up.

I think this test is designed especially for cell phones users.

Slowly drifting to the left towards the oncoming traffic, or right towards the telephone pole.

 

so long

j-ten-ner

[LaserBlueZ71]

 

 

This is actually a large reason of why I traded in my 2011. The NNBS generation extended cab trucks fold up like pancakes because there is no pillar present with the suicide rear door design. This double cab stayed solid as a rock!

[00Silverado4x4]

I am curious how my truck model would fair as I only have the 3rd door on the passenger side?!

 

It's hard to watch such nice looking brand new vehicles getting intentionally smashed up, but it is for a good reason though.

[Wolfmanjohn]

 

 

This is actually a large reason of why I traded in my 2011. The NNBS generation extended cab trucks fold up like pancakes because there is no pillar present with the suicide rear door design. This double cab stayed solid as a rock!

Which is why we bought the crew cab; the center pillar.

[MikeNH]

I am curious how my truck model would fair as I only have the 3rd door on the passenger side?!

 

It's hard to watch such nice looking brand new vehicles getting intentionally smashed up, but it is for a good reason though.

 

Terrible. The 800s only got a marginal on the offset test that uses like half the barrier/body. Small offset would destroy it for sure but they didn't do this test back when those trucks were new.

[00Silverado4x4]

Well that's not such good news...I know the Ford Ranger offset crash test I had last year destroyed my last truck. Don't care to repeat that again.

[Daryl Z71]

 

Terrible. The 800s only got a marginal on the offset test that uses like half the barrier/body. Small offset would destroy it for sure but they didn't do this test back when those trucks were new.

 

 

Because of that or a rollover I wish my truck had the center pillar like the crew cabs.

[MikeNH]

No older vehicles do well in the small overlap. Anything that does well is a new design.