10 vehicles that scored a rare Poor in IIHS’s tougher updated crash tests

IIHS keeps raising the bar with tougher moderate overlap front and side crash tests, and a wave of popular vehicles have failed to keep up. A Poor rating is not a paperwork technicality; it reflects dummy measurements showing real injury risk to the head, neck, chest or pelvis. Here are ten vehicles that scored a rare Poor in the updated evaluations.

1. Cadillac CT5: Too Close For Comfort

IIHS’s moderate overlap front test gave the redesigned Cadillac CT5 an overall Poor rating, with the rear passenger dummy’s head coming dangerously close to the front seatback. Engineers use that clearance as a stand-in for how much force a real occupant’s skull would absorb on contact.

That narrow margin points to a real risk of head injury for anyone riding behind the front seats, a striking result for a brand-new sedan redesign rather than an aging holdover model still awaiting an update from its manufacturer.

2. Kia Forte: Torso And Pelvis Risk

IIHS rated the Kia Forte Poor in its updated moderate overlap front test, and measurements from the driver dummy indicated a high risk of torso and pelvis injuries. The updated protocol strikes a smaller portion of the front bumper, concentrating force onto structures that older tests barely engaged.

The compact sedan was one of three small cars the institute singled out as falling short, evidence that the tougher protocol exposes structural weaknesses many older small-car platforms were never engineered to handle in the first place.

3. Nissan Sentra: A Second Small Car Falters

The Nissan Sentra also scored Poor in the same round of IIHS moderate overlap front testing that flagged the Forte and Crosstrek, part of a pattern the institute described as small cars faltering under the tougher protocol. All three vehicles share the same compact footprint that leaves less crush space ahead of occupants.

For shoppers cross-shopping budget-friendly compacts, the shared result across three separate nameplates suggests the whole segment, not one design, struggles to meet the newer structural bar the institute now expects every small car to clear.

4. Subaru Crosstrek: Intrusion At The B-Pillar

IIHS found substantial B-pillar and door-panel intrusion in the Subaru Crosstrek’s moderate overlap front test, contributing to its overall Poor rating along with a moderate or high risk of rear-passenger head, neck or chest injury. The B-pillar normally anchors the seatbelt and roof structure.

Structural intrusion into the occupant compartment is precisely the failure mode the updated test was built to expose, since older, less demanding protocols could miss collapse happening near the rear doors where a small SUV has less metal to spare.

5. Subaru Impreza: Poor Marks On The Side

In IIHS’s updated side crash test, the Subaru Impreza sedan scored Poor after evaluators measured substantial intrusion of the B-pillar and interior door panels into the occupant compartment. The newer side test uses a heavier barrier moving faster than the version it replaced.

A side impact leaves little crush space to absorb energy before it reaches occupants, so that kind of intrusion is a direct proxy for injury risk to whoever sits closest to the strike, whether in the front or back seat.

6. Honda Pilot: Rear Seat Falls Short

IIHS gave the Honda Pilot a Poor rating in its updated midsize-SUV moderate overlap test, one of six vehicles where measurements showed a high risk of head or neck injuries to a rear passenger. The test added a second dummy in the second row specifically to check on that seating position.

The finding matters for the three-row family SUVs this test targets, since rear-seat occupants, often children, had long been assumed safer in a frontal crash than the person belted in up front.

7. Jeep Grand Cherokee: One Of Six SUVs

The Jeep Grand Cherokee was another of the six midsize SUVs IIHS rated Poor for rear-passenger protection, sharing the same high risk of head or neck injury finding as the Pilot. Investigators pointed to belt and airbag timing tuned mainly around the front occupants.

With most vehicles in the class landing in the same bottom tier, the result undercuts any assumption that a larger, heavier SUV automatically means a safer back seat for a growing family riding along on a long highway trip.

8. Chevrolet Colorado: Midsize Pickups Miss The Mark

The Chevrolet Colorado earned an overall Poor rating for rear passenger protection in IIHS’s updated moderate overlap front crash test, part of a broader pattern among midsize trucks built with rear seating that manufacturers historically treated as a secondary afterthought behind front-row crash protection.

Pickup buyers who assume a truck cab rides safer than a sedan for backseat riders now have a documented reason to question that assumption, at least under this newer, considerably more demanding evaluation from the institute.

9. Jeep Gladiator: Missing A Key Airbag

The Jeep Gladiator scored Poor after IIHS found it lacks a rear side curtain airbag, and testing showed the rear lap belt shifted onto the abdomen during the crash rather than staying anchored across the pelvis where it is meant to sit.

A belt riding up onto the abdomen instead of the pelvis is a known cause of internal injury, making the missing curtain airbag an even bigger gap for anyone riding in the back of the open-top pickup on a family outing.

10. Toyota Tacoma: A Repeat Failure Flagged

IIHS’s president specifically called out the Toyota Tacoma by name after it posted an overall Poor rating, with the same rear dummy’s head coming dangerously close to the front seatback, the identical problem that also turned up on the CT5 months later.

The truck also drew a separate Poor score for chest injuries in back-seat passenger testing, reinforcing that this shared failure mode spans brands, body styles, price points and vehicle categories alike across the industry’s entire current model lineup nationwide.

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