The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has recently tested a group of 2009 two-door cars in front-end, side, and rear crash tests. The vehicles tested were the Chevrolet Cobalt, Ford Focus, Honda Civic, and

Scion tC in the small car category and the Volvo C30 in the midsize category. They ranged in price from $15,305 for the Honda Civic Coupe to $23,800 for the Volvo C30. All of the vehicles tested were equipped with side air bags. The side test crash was meant to simulate being struck by a pickup truck or an SUV. The rear test crash measured how well vehicle seats and head restraints protect people against neck injury in low speed rear crashes.
These are the results of the crash tests.

• Top scores went to the Ford Focus and Volvo C30 in front-end, side, and rear crash tests.
• Top scores went to the two-door versions of the Chevrolet Cobalt and Honda Civic in front-end tests and the second-highest rating in side tests.
• Top score in the rear test went to the Honda Civic.
• The Chevrolet Cobalt has not been tested in rear crash tests.
• Toyota’s Scion tC received the second highest score in both the front-end and side tests, but received the second-lowest rating in the rear crash test.

As a result the Ford Focus and Volvo C30 were the best of the five cars tested in this group qualifying the Ford Focus as a 2009 Top Safety Pick among small cars and the Volvo C30 a 2009 Top Safety Pick among midsize cars.