Bad news for walls, telephone poles, and other solid objects — the new Volvo XC90 looks like it can crush you into oblivion.
This is the IIHS’ small overlap crash test. They introduced the test last year and got some amazingly bad test results. Why? Well, as Mazda explained after the horrifying video of its CX-9 crumpling against an offset barrier, they had designed their car to pass all the tests of its time. The small overlap test was introduced after the CX-9 was designed, so the CX-9 wasn’t built to withstand its kind of impact.
This is like teaching to the test, only with cars.
While Mazda (and others) got caught out by the small overlap test, Volvo had the opportunity to come prepared with their new XC90. As you can see, it monstered the test, keeping the humans isolated from the incident.