Sadly all of the Ford electrics are out because they put their batteries in the cargo area, which makes it too high for our dog to ride in.The only Ford that he fit in was the C-Max hybrid, but it didn't stack up well against the Prius liftback or v for price/space/mileage. I was pretty bummed about that, because I had high hopes for the Focus in particular!
Darren, would the small overlap test be considered one of the actual frontal/side impact tests (and thus a concern for the Prius v)? That one seems so tricky since I'm trying to compare to a car that hasn't even been tested for that...
Bummer on the Focus electric. I'd love to have one myself to tool around town in. I'd love the Tesla even more, but I'd be too afraid to drive it anywhere!
I found the C-Max to fit right in between the Prius and Prius V in terms of space and mileage. Personally, I liked the C-Max better than our Prius, though it did fall a bit short on fuel economy.
Obviously the Energi plug-in version would do better, but is pricier. Of course, the total lack of crash tests from the IIHS may be even more of a concern than the small overlap result for Prius/V.
Yes the small overlap is a real crash test. Small overlap is not as common as the full frontal or moderate overlap types of crashes, but still important. The rear "crash test", on the other hand, is actually just a measurement done with dummies, no actual dynamic crash test is performed.
