2003 Kia Sephia/Spectra

small car / 4-door sedan

2003 Kia Sephia/Spectra 4-door sedan
1999 Kia Sephia/Spectra shown

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 1998-2004 models built before December 2003

Tested vehicle: 1999 Kia Sephia 4-door

The Kia Sephia was redesigned for the 1998 model year. The Spectra was introduced for the 2000 model year as a hatchback version of the Sephia. Beginning with 2002 models, the Sephia name was replaced by the Spectra for both sedan and hatchback models.

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. During rebound, the dummy moved toward the driver door. Its head went part of the way out the open window and hit the B-pillar. There was too much upward movement of the steering wheel.

Action shot taken during the frontal offset crash test.

The driver's upper interior survival space was maintained reasonably well. However, there was too much upward movement of the steering wheel and too much intrusion into the driver footwell area.

A high head injury measure occurred when the dummy interacted with the airbag, indicating the possibility of injury.

Smeared greasepaint indicates where the dummy's head hit the B-pillar during the offset test. The head acceleration was high, indicating the possibility of injury.

Technical measurements for this test

Measures of occupant compartment intrusion on driver side

Test ID CF99008
Footwell intrusion
Footrest (cm) 18
Left (cm) 29
Center (cm) 34
Right (cm) 26
Brake pedal (cm) 26
Instrument panel rearward movement
Left (cm) 6
Right (cm) 6
Steering column movement
Upward (cm) 10
Rearward (cm) 0
A-pillar rearward movement (cm) 4

Driver injury measures

Test ID CF99008
Head
HIC-15 821
Peak gs at hard contact 124
Neck
Tension (kN) 2.3
Extension bending moment (Nm) 29
Maximum Nij 0.38
Chest maximum compression (mm) 38
Legs
Femur force - left (kN) 2.3
Femur force - right (kN) 3.8
Knee displacement - left (mm) 4
Knee displacement - right (mm) 5
Maximum tibia index - left 1.15
Maximum tibia index - right 1.12
Tibia axial force - left (kN) 1.5
Tibia axial force - right (kN) 2.6
Foot acceleration (g)
Left 74
Right 99

About the original moderate overlap front test