Acura RL, Safety tested
Side-impact crash tests of luxury sedans by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a U.S. insurance industry, showed the Acura RL, along with the Kia Amanti and Volvo S80 had the highest safety rating.
The tests conducted were designed to reveal what would happen if a truck or sport utility vehicle (SUV) struck the side of the sedan at 31 mph, the estimated speed of a serious crash. According to the statistics, side-impact crashes killed around 9,000 people on U.S. roads in 2005 and are the most common type of fatal crash next to a frontal crash.
“Growing sales of SUVs and pickups have exacerbated height mismatches among passenger vehicles, thereby increasing the risks to occupants of many vehicles struck in the side,” Insurance Institute President Adrian Lund said in a news release.
The Acura RL is geared with a comprehensive array of the latest technologies to enhance active safety (accident avoidance) and passive safety (crash safety performance). It has features like Vehicle Stability Assist (VSA) with traction control, heightened handling agility, SH-AWD and ABS enhance accident avoidance capability in the RL. In case of collisions, the Advanced Compatibility Engineering (ACE) body structure of the RL is designed to provide a protective cocoon for its passengers if it occurs with a different sized vehicle (a truck, SUV, etc.). The inside, side, side curtain and dual-stage front air bag systems work together with sophisticated restraint systems to minimize injury to passengers especially in considerable impacts.
From a brand that is keen on safety, the new technology that is featured in the 2007 RL makes it one of the most comprehensively equipped vehicles in North America.