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November 22, 2006
The Saab 9-3 Sport Sedan has earned the 2007 Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's Top Safety Pick Award in the midsize car category. This is the third consecutive year that the 9-3 Sport Sedan has driven away from this competition with top honours.
For 2006, the 9-3 earned the Top Safety Pick - Gold Award and received a Double Best Pick crash test rating for 2005. The 2007 Saab 9-3 Sedan was awarded the designation amid toughening criteria.
The Institute rates vehicles good, acceptable, marginal or poor based on performance in high-speed front and side crash tests plus evaluations of seat/head restraints for protection against neck injuries. Winning vehicles must earn good ratings in all three of the previously described tests, and, new for 2007, vehicles must also offer electronic stability control. Adrian Lund, IIHS president admits that with the added criteria it is tougher to win, however it was added with the overall goal to encourage more vehicle safety improvements.
"This is the Saab 9-3's second year running to receive the IIHS Top Safety Pick award," Lund said. "Considering the criteria are tougher this year than last, the 9-3's accomplishment is impressive."
IIHS is a non-profit research and communications organisation funded by auto insurers. The Institute's research focuses on countermeasures aimed at all three factors in motor vehicle crashes (human, vehicular and environmental) and on intervention that can occur before, during and after crashes to reduce losses.
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