1996 Lexus LS

large luxury car / 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 1995-2000 models

Tested vehicle: 1997 Lexus LS 400 4-door

The Lexus LS, available as only one model named the LS 400, was redesigned for the 1995 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

Action shot taken during the frontal offset crash test.

The dummy's position in relation to the steering wheel and instrument panel after the crash test indicates that the driver's survival space was maintained well.

The bumpers are poor. This 1997 model sustained huge damage in the rear-into-pole impact.

Rear bumper improvements to the 1998 model greatly reduced the damage in the rear-into-pole test at 5 mph. However, so much damage was sustained in other impacts that the overall bumper rating remains poor.

Technical measurements for this test

Measures of occupant compartment intrusion on driver side

Test ID CF96031
Footwell intrusion
Footrest (cm) 6
Left (cm) 16
Center (cm) 15
Right (cm) 11
Brake pedal (cm) 9
Instrument panel rearward movement
Left (cm) 3
Right (cm) 4
Steering column movement
Upward (cm) 1
Rearward (cm) 6
A-pillar rearward movement (cm) 5

Driver injury measures

Test ID CF96031
Head
HIC-15 414
Peak gs at hard contact negligible
Neck
Tension (kN) 1.5
Extension bending moment (Nm) 22
Maximum Nij 0.31
Chest maximum compression (mm) 37
Legs
Femur force - left (kN) 2.8
Femur force - right (kN) 5.3
Knee displacement - left (mm) 3
Knee displacement - right (mm) 9
Maximum tibia index - left 0.40
Maximum tibia index - right 0.66
Tibia axial force - left (kN) 1.0
Tibia axial force - right (kN) 1.9
Foot acceleration (g)
Left 59
Right 64

About the original moderate overlap front test