1997 Kia Sephia

small car / 4-door sedan

1997 Kia Sephia 4-door sedan

Crashworthiness

Rating overview
Moderate overlap front: original test

Key

  • G
    Good
  • A
    Acceptable
  • M
    Marginal
  • P
    Poor
  • Superior
  • Advanced
  • Basic

Some ratings use a scale of Poor to Good. Others range from Basic to Superior.

Moderate overlap front: original test

Rating applies to 1996-97 models

Tested vehicle: 1997 Kia Sephia LS 4-door

The Kia Sephia was introduced in the 1993 model year. Frontal airbags for both the driver and passenger were introduced as options beginning late in the 1995 model year and became standard beginning with the 1997 model year.

Overall evaluation
Structure and safety cage
Driver injury measures
Head/neck
Chest
Leg/foot, left
Leg/foot, right
Driver restraints and dummy kinematics
Dummy movement wasn't well controlled. Special stitching on the lap belt, designed to limit belt forces by tearing and lengthening the belt, allowed the dummy to move too much. Its head and shoulders went outside the driver door frame. Late in the crash, the dummy's head hit the B-pillar. There also was far too much upward movement of the steering wheel.

Action shot taken during the frontal offset crash test.

Post-crash damage shot.

Deformation of the driver door plus lengthening of the safety belt allowed the dummy's head and shoulder to go outside the door frame during the offset test.

Technical measurements for this test

Measures of occupant compartment intrusion on driver side

Test ID CF97013
Footwell intrusion
Footrest (cm) 29
Left (cm) 35
Center (cm) 35
Right (cm) 28
Brake pedal (cm) 25
Instrument panel rearward movement
Left (cm) 12
Right (cm) 9
Steering column movement
Upward (cm) 15
Rearward (cm) 5
A-pillar rearward movement (cm) 18

Driver injury measures

Test ID CF97013
Head
HIC-15 374
Peak gs at hard contact negligible
Neck
Tension (kN) 2.2
Extension bending moment (Nm) 20
Maximum Nij 0.38
Chest maximum compression (mm) 40
Legs
Femur force - left (kN) 11.2
Femur force - right (kN) 3.8
Knee displacement - left (mm) 2
Knee displacement - right (mm) 8
Maximum tibia index - left 1.85
Maximum tibia index - right 1.59
Tibia axial force - left (kN) 2.0
Tibia axial force - right (kN) 3.9
Foot acceleration (g)
Left 102
Right 149

How the moderate overlap front test is conducted

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