1996 Mercury Sable

large 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 1996-99 models

Tested vehicle: 1996 Ford Taurus GL 4-door

The Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable were redesigned for the 1996 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.

Crumpled sheet metal in front of the occupant compartment indicates where the crash energy was absorbed. A strong safety cage helped keep the tire out of the driver footwell area.

The head restraints are poor. Even when they're adjusted to the highest position, they're too far below and behind the top of an average-size male's head to provide adequate protection.

Technical measurements for this test

Measures of occupant compartment intrusion on driver side

Test ID CF95029
Footwell intrusion
Footrest (cm) 8
Left (cm) 15
Center (cm) 16
Right (cm) 16
Brake pedal (cm) 19
Instrument panel rearward movement
Left (cm) 5
Right (cm) 5
Steering column movement
Upward (cm) 2
Rearward (cm) 3
A-pillar rearward movement (cm) 4

Driver injury measures

Test ID CF95029
Head
HIC-15 254
Peak gs at hard contact 21
Neck
Tension (kN) 1.4
Extension bending moment (Nm) 34
Maximum Nij 0.35
Chest maximum compression (mm) 36
Legs
Femur force - left (kN) 4.6
Femur force - right (kN) 1.7
Knee displacement - left (mm) 0
Knee displacement - right (mm) 0
Maximum tibia index - left 0.45
Maximum tibia index - right 0.48
Tibia axial force - left (kN) 1.3
Tibia axial force - right (kN) 1.4
Foot acceleration (g)
Left 85
Right 69

How the moderate overlap front test is conducted