The primary purpose of crash tests is to compare vehicles in the same weight and class. Everyone knows a small vehicle loses against a large vehicle, or at least they should.
So what is the purpose of comparing side impacts of midsized sedans with full-sized trucks? If they're going to do that, why stop there? They should compare side impacts of full-sized trucks with industrial-sized, fully laden dump trucks. You'd see the same result.
I've become so suspicious of modern day motives I wonder if this is a covert attempt by automakers via the IIHS to sway people into buying $75,000 F-150s instead of more affordable sedans, which have much lower margins.
With respect to the IIHS small versus big methodology, I find this statement alarming. "The new test results won't count against existing IIHS ratings or awards, but they will be published alongside the current ones through 2022. After that, IIHS will use the new side-impact test by default."
What this tells me is that across the board
all smaller/lighter/lower vehicles will be deemed unsafe in the future. At a minimum this undermines the credibility of the IIHS, for me at least.
Scott
PS There was a recent thread about this same topic.
https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/t...les-to-most-midsize-cars.358001/#post-6193446