1997 Plymouth Neon

small 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 1995-99 models

Tested vehicle: 1997 Dodge Neon Highline 4-door

The Dodge and Plymouth Neon were introduced in the 1995 model year.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has evaluated the crashworthiness of the Neon in two 40 mph frontal offset crash tests into a deformable barrier. In the first test of this car, the dummy's feet/ankles were an earlier design from the one used in tests of other small cars. A second test was conducted with a new foot/ankle design, and similar results were obtained. This evaluation is based on both tests, except leg/foot evaluations are based on the second test only.

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 either test. There was too much rearward movement of the steering wheel during both tests, and, in the first test, this contributed to the dummy's head bottoming out the airbag and hitting the steering wheel. In the second test, the airbag didn't bottom out. Otherwise, dummy movement was similar in both tests.

Action shot taken during the frontal offset crash test.

Post-crash damage shot.

Intrusion in the driver footwell area and rearward movement of the instrument panel compromised the driver space during the offset test.

Technical measurements for this test

Measures of occupant compartment intrusion on driver side

Test ID CF97019
Footwell intrusion
Footrest (cm) 24
Left (cm) 29
Center (cm) 27
Right (cm) 21
Brake pedal (cm) 27
Instrument panel rearward movement
Left (cm) 14
Right (cm) 11
Steering column movement
Upward (cm) 2
Rearward (cm) 13
A-pillar rearward movement (cm) 24

Driver injury measures

Test ID CF97019
Head
HIC-15 265
Peak gs at hard contact no contact
Neck
Tension (kN) 2.1
Extension bending moment (Nm) 23
Maximum Nij 0.39
Chest maximum compression (mm) 39
Legs
Femur force - left (kN) 4.7
Femur force - right (kN) 3.9
Knee displacement - left (mm) 0
Knee displacement - right (mm) 0
Maximum tibia index - left 1.13
Maximum tibia index - right 1.34
Tibia axial force - left (kN) 5.2
Tibia axial force - right (kN) 5.6
Foot acceleration (g)
Left 74
Right 75

How the moderate overlap front test is conducted