Rachelndil
Member
We are in the market for a second car seat-friendly vehicle. We are considering Subaru Outback and Mazda Cx-5. I'm trying to use informedforlife website (recommended on the blog) to narrow down our search, but because we are probably buying a year or more used, it is difficult.
Even though the models are supposedly unchanged between different years (outback 2011 or 2012 vs 2013 or 2014; and newer vs older Mazda), the safety ratings are top 3%/recommended, versus not recommended. I can't figure out why in these specific cases. I understand that generally, equipment or newer crash test results may change ratings, but I'm not sure how to track this information down to determine whether the older vehicles are comparable as equipped.
Can anyone explain this?
Even though the models are supposedly unchanged between different years (outback 2011 or 2012 vs 2013 or 2014; and newer vs older Mazda), the safety ratings are top 3%/recommended, versus not recommended. I can't figure out why in these specific cases. I understand that generally, equipment or newer crash test results may change ratings, but I'm not sure how to track this information down to determine whether the older vehicles are comparable as equipped.
Can anyone explain this?