Kia has tried to improve the safety rating of its Soul and Forte, two models which did not fare well at all in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s (IIHS) crash tests. Both vehicles were rated ‘poor’ for the difficult small overlap test rendering the pair not recommendable.
Now, with the structural improvements it gained, the Soul rated ‘good’ in the small overlap, which allowed it to qualify for the IIHS’ Top Safety Pick award.
The Forte, however, even with a much stiffer shell than before, was still unable to exceed a ‘marginal’ rating for the same test because “the driver’s space wasn’t maintained well, with intrusion approaching 8 inches at the lower hinge pillar. The dummy’s head slid off the frontal airbag and struck the instrument panel, as the safety belt allowed too much forward motion.”
Even so, the Forte is not by any means an unsafe car, and the IIHS concludes that even with the modest ratings it was able to achieve, overall “injury measures on the dummy were low.”