Tundra Front End Safety Concerns

I realize this is a year-old study but how does everyone feel about the poor Tundra crash ratings, especially for front seat passengers? My apologies if this has been discussed at length.

"But Toyota's full-size Tundra was rated as one of the most unsafe trucks the IIHS evaluated. In the frontal tests, the Tundra was "seriously compromised by intruding structure," which is an engineer's way to explain that you're likely to be seriously injured by the Tundra's cabin compressing around your body. In the passenger-side test, the Tundra's footwell caved in 15 inches, compared to the F-150's five inches. It scored the worst rating of Poor. Plus, its A-pillar "intruded into the passenger's space," and the lower part of the B-pillar caved in more than a foot, IIHS said. The driver's score was slightly better at Marginal. Roof strength was also the weakest of any pickup tested."

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2019/03/21/iihs-gm-toyota-pickup-truck-safety/3221070002/

 

Look at it's crash ratings from 2007. These trucks are an old platform that was built to old standards. The standards have gotten more strict, but the trucks haven't changed.

 

Wow. Stellar marks for crash ratings in 2007. Thanks. I'll keep driving the coolest looking truck on the road.

 

Still not buying a Ford

 

I drive a 20 year old jeep wrangler with the doors off almost everyday. I feel very safe in my Tundra.

 

Don’t crash it....

No vehicle fares well in a real world crash. Speeds on roads today are insane and death is certain for all combatants! DO NOT PARTICIPATE IN CRASHING!!

 

FWIW...Double Cab crash ratings are better than Crewmax ratings.

https://www.tundras.com/threads/double-cab-or-crew-max.54876/page-2#post-1436977

 

In a similar vein, to get out of debt, STOP BEING POOR!

 

This was very helpful. Thank you.

 

It’s interesting the IIHS data rates the headlights marginal for crash avoidance. The Tundra OEM halogen headlights are awful - just no other way to describe them. Many have upgraded to LEDs or in my case the TRD Pro OEM LED headlights which are awesome! Literally a night and day difference.

 

A buddy and I took a road trip in an old Corvair in the late 70's, we survived because we did not hit or get hit by anything. These days, knowing how to drive and concentrating on accident avoidance are under appreciated.

 

I hear you, Rex. Just avoiding retirees in grocery store parking lots from backing into me is like playing a game of Pac Man each week!

 

I couldn’t agree with you more on that point. Today’s drivers are driving at excessively high speeds. It’s crazy and you can’t expect any vehicle to hold up in a crash at the average highway speeds these days. 90% of the time people are trying to run me off the road in the far right lane doing 70 mph on a three lane highway. The northeast is horrible...

 

Slow drivers cause more accidents than fast drivers.

Lead, follow or get out of the way.

 

Modern cars and trucks are designed so that the area in front of the passenger compartment collapses and absorbs most of the impact and the passenger compartment is strengthened so it does not allow a front wheel to come inside with a head on collision.

Friends with a van hit a 10 mph earthmover on the highway that was creating a cloud of dust behind it and could not be seen and both front wheels ended up in the front seat area. The driver needed to have a hysterectomy as a result of the damage she received and so they could not have children. Not a joking matter.

Too many people who drink and drive or who text while driving and nearly no one seems to use their phones hands free, so the odds of a serious accident have gone up over the past years. Front and side impact protection are important to me. I bought a new Toyota pickup in 1989 to get the air bags. I will probably buy something other than a Toyota for my new truck next year.

None of the people who end up in the morque left the house thinking that it was going to be their last day alive.

 

Having just gotten rear ended by someone doing 50ish all I can say is, they base these test largely around the truck hitting stationary objects that dont move. While we still very much felt the impact, the actual compression of the vehicle body surprised me. The other vehicle, an Acura SUV had the hood and front pressed all the way up to the cabin. Our Tundra, frame was bent and the box hit the cab but if you were to just look at it the only really visible damage was the bumper, tail gate and bedside. After this experience I almost feel even more apt to get another Tundra for how it handled the accident, safety was not a major concern before but now I feel extremely safe in a Tundra.

The corner impact is newer, as stated already, but it again focuses on hitting a stationary object like a building, at a precise angle. Not to say it doesnt happen, just rather, youre more likely to hit or be hit by another vehicle. In terms of vehicle to vehicle impacts, the Tundra does well.

 

Funny, Ford used to have the worst crash ratings of any truck.

 

This. I mean, is it 'concerning'? Sure, I suppose. With that said, I've known many people who have gotten in crashes, and exactly *NONE* of them who owned a Toyota had any issues. The vast majority of them did not hit stationary corners off-center. LOL

 

That test specifically has made a lot of news, sites love to publish how poor the ratings are in that test. A test that covers a tangible risk sure, but a risk that likely makes up a minute fraction of actual collisions.

 

To be fair , the whole reason they started testing vehicles for that type of crash was because most “head on” collisions were only hitting the front drivers side of the vehicles as opposed to a full head on collision .

 

The specific test Im referring to is the corner test or small overlap test. Its done with a wall, it was to test whether the wheel would enter the cab space and cause leg and low torso damage. It was a newer test, only a few years old, so designs like the Tundra arent going to preform well in it because they haven't fully addressed it with a structural redesign.

Vehicle to vehicle crashes with this test are difficult simply because the testing method for vehicle/vehicle impacts relies on a track mounted test vehicle that will stay stationary at impact unlike vehicles on the road. Toyota will almost certainly address this in a redesign. This test alone though wouldn't affect my purchase consideration. The other issue with impact testing is again stationary focus. If a Tundra were to impact the majority of smaller vehicles on the road the outcome would almost certainly favor the Tundra due to size and mass.

Its kind of the common claim when someone cites how safe a vehicle did in testing. Real world outcomes would show that the case is largely determined by the other vehicles size dictating the outcome. There are exceptions of course. We do have a distinct advantage over cars, as I just learned, having at least 6' of rear impact protection. We also have a higher risk of roll over compared to cars.

These pictures illustrate the consideration for overlap testing, but with another vehicle the overlap damage is less than that of the stationary object used in testing. The physics of 2 vehicle intersecting at opposing trajectories equates to a greater impact force than hitting the stationary object. The difference being the stationary object doesnt have any forgiveness and the force is translated mostly into the vehicle.

These pictures are both from head on collision. The overlap pushes the wheel back but not into the cab enough to incur life threatening injuries.







https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeTizNY0zDA

 

I agree with you 100% that’s the test I was referring to also . I’ve made the same argument with others about the crash tests especially a car vs a pick up .

 

I wonder if a transmission cooler would decrease the damage.

 

Heck, the fully redesigned 2019 GMs score poorly on this test. It's one thing to say an old vehicle doesn't meet new standards but for a new vehicle to do badly? Doesn't speak well for the corporation as a whole. I'm sure the Toyota engineers will be able to figure out how to make the new Tundra do well on this test.