The Chevrolet Trailblazer and Audi Q3 earned Poor ratings in the latest IIHS crash test

Two small SUVs left the latest round of Insurance Institute for Highway Safety crash testing with the lowest grade the institute awards. The 2026 Chevrolet Trailblazer and the 2026 Audi Q3 each earned a Poor rating in the institute’s updated moderate overlap front test, part of the October ratings batch. The same batch gave the 2026 Nissan Kicks, built after June 2026, a Top Safety Pick award.

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Both Poor grades came even though the results for the person in the driver’s seat were strong. In each case the weak spot sits in the second row, where a smaller dummy stands in for a small woman or a 12-year-old child.

The Updated Moderate Overlap Test and Its Rear Dummy

The moderate overlap front test simulates an offset crash between two vehicles traveling in opposite directions at just under 40 mph each. In practice, the vehicle hits a barrier at 40 mph with 40 percent of its front overlapping it. The institute updated the test in 2022 to add back seat protection, placing a smaller Hybrid III dummy behind the driver. A belt-tension sensor and a chest pressure mat on that dummy supply extra data on chest injury risk in the rear. Intrusion into the occupant compartment is measured at key locations, and sensors in the dummies’ heads, necks, chests, legs and feet record injury risk. High-speed film and greasepaint show how the dummies move, which helps evaluators judge how well the seat belts and airbags worked.

IIHS President David Harkey has described the updated test as a challenge to automakers to bring the same crash protection that front-seat occupants enjoy to the back seat, according to Motor1’s coverage of an earlier small SUV round. That framing matters for reading the October results. The structure and the driver measures can be excellent while the rear-seat belt and dummy-motion evaluation still drags a vehicle down to Poor, because the rating weighs the back seat as a separate occupant position. Adding a rear dummy in 2022 meant that a single crash now generates injury data for both rows of seats.

Chevrolet Trailblazer: Strong Up Front, Poor Belt Performance in Back

The institute’s ratings page for the 2026 Trailblazer covers an LT four-door with four-wheel drive and applies to 2026 models built after February 2026. The structure and safety cage earned Good, and every driver measure, from head and neck to leg and foot, also earned Good. In the rear, head and neck and thigh protection were Good and chest protection was Marginal. The rear passenger restraints and dummy kinematics category earned Poor, and it is the only Poor sub-rating on the page. A Marginal for rear chest means the belt loaded the small dummy’s chest more than the best results allow, though the page does not set out the thresholds.

The page records a rear shoulder belt tension of 4.8 kilonewtons for the back-seat dummy. It also notes that for 2026 models built after February 2026, General Motors improved the rear seat belt load limiters to better protect rear occupants in moderate overlap front crashes. The page does not spell out how the sub-ratings combine into the overall grade.

Audi Q3: Same Pattern, Different Build Date

The Q3 ratings page describes a very similar profile for a 2026 Q3 S line quattro four-door. Structure and safety cage were Good, and every driver injury measure and the driver restraints and dummy kinematics were Good. Rear head and neck and thigh protection were Good, rear chest was Marginal, and rear restraints and dummy kinematics were Poor. The rating applies to 2026 and 2027 models built after May 2026.

The page adds a statement that, beginning with 2026 models built after May 2026, changes were made to the rear seat and seat belts. Buyers can find a vehicle’s build date on the certification label, typically on the driver door or the adjacent B-pillar, and that date decides which rating applies to a given car.

The Rest of the October Batch

The institute’s October ratings release lists six models in all. The Nissan Kicks built after June 2026 earned Good in the updated moderate overlap test and the Top Safety Pick award. The 2026 Volkswagen Jetta also earned Good. The 2026 Toyota RAV4 earned Acceptable, while the 2026 RAV4 Plug-In Hybrid earned Marginal, a split between two versions of the same nameplate. The Trailblazer and the Q3 sit at the bottom of the list. The Kicks award also carries a build-date cutoff, which echoes the production-window language on the Trailblazer and Q3 pages: the institute ties each rating to a stated range of build dates, so a result for one production window does not automatically describe another.

The release carries no quoted comment from General Motors or Audi, and it names only a media relations contact rather than a spokesperson explaining the results. The page text carries an October 19 date line while its metadata shows October 22, so the exact release day is worth confirming against the institute’s own listing.

A Poor rating is a laboratory injury-risk judgment about one crash configuration, not a count of real-world crashes. IIHS also cautions that crash severity depends on vehicle weight, so ratings should be compared only among vehicles of similar weight. For shoppers choosing between small SUVs, the practical step is to check the specific model year and build month on the institute’s ratings pages, since both Poor grades attach to particular production windows. Owners of earlier builds of either model are not covered by these two ratings, which apply only to the stated build ranges.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

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