Americans should avoid a number of high-end cars, if their primary interest is passenger safety. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety reported that “only 3 of 11 midsize luxury and near-luxury cars evaluated earn good or acceptable ratings.”
The Acura TL and Volvo S60 earn good ratings, while the Infiniti G earns acceptable. The Acura TSX, BMW 3 series, Lincoln MKZ and Volkswagen CC earn marginal ratings. The Mercedes-Benz C-Class, Lexus IS 250/350, Audi A4 and Lexus ES 350 earn poor. All of these cars are 2012 models.
The data is particularly surprising since the best-selling luxury cars did the worst. Honda Motor Co. Ltd.’s (NYSE: HMC) Acura sales fall well below those of BMW, Mercedes and Audi. And Volvo sells barely any cars in the United States. On the other hand, the Mercedes C-Class is its best-selling model. Audi and Lexus occupy the annual luxury sales volume slots in the U.S. just below Mercedes and BMW. All of these luxury cars are supposed to be among the best engineered in the world. It looks like that assumption is a fantasy.
Douglas A. McIntyre
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