Acceptable head/neck injury?

[Unregistered]

Both the Toyota Highlander and Lexus 330 receive an "acceptable" rating in the head/neck injury category. What does "acceptable" mean in that regard?

Is one car better than the other?

[Unregistered]

They are essentially the same car, so my guess is that one wouldn't be better than the other...unless you could get one with side impact protection...that shoudl make it safer. The Toyota rav-4 w/ side curtain airbags received a good in side impact protection & the rav-4 tested w/o side curtain airbags recieved, I believe, a poor...so go w/ side curtain airbags if you can.
Erin

[CPSDarren]

The IIHS website has the best explanation:

http://www.iihs.org/vehicle_ratings/ce/def.htm

Both of these models did very well in the IIHS tests. The Highlander did somewhat better in the NHTSA testing ( http://www.nhtsa.gov/NCAP/Cars/2004SUVs.html )

Overall, both vehicles should be very safe. Neither has been given a rollover rating under the new testing being done by the NHTSA, yet.