1999 Saab 9-3

midsize luxury car / 4-door sedan

1999 Saab 9-3 4-door sedan

Crashworthiness

Rating overview
Moderate overlap front: original test

Other available safety features

  • Standard daytime running lights

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 1999-2002 models built after December 1998

Tested vehicle: 1999 Saab 9-3 4-door

The Saab 9-3 was restyled and renamed for the 1999 model year (it used to be called the Saab 900). All 9-3 models manufactured after December 1998 include structural changes to improve occupant protection in frontal crashes (note: information about when a specific vehicle was manufactured is on the certification label typically affixed to the car on or near the driver door).

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has evaluated the crashworthiness of a 9-3 with the structural changes in a 40 mph frontal offset crash test into a deformable barrier.

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, and 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 survival space was maintained reasonably well, although there was too much upward movement of the steering wheel and some buckling of the roof rail.

Smeared greasepaint indicates where the dummy's head hit the B-pillar during rebound, producing a high head acceleration.

The active head restraint design, new in 1999 Saabs, automatically moves into position to provide more effective protection from whiplash injuries in rear-end collisions.

Technical measurements for this test

Measures of occupant compartment intrusion on driver side

Test ID CF99004
Footwell intrusion
Footrest (cm) 20
Left (cm) 24
Center (cm) 26
Right (cm) 21
Brake pedal (cm) 15
Instrument panel rearward movement
Left (cm) 8
Right (cm) 7
Steering column movement
Upward (cm) 14
Rearward (cm) 6
A-pillar rearward movement (cm) 11

Driver injury measures

Test ID CF99004
Head
HIC-15 334
Peak gs at hard contact 92
Neck
Tension (kN) 1.4
Extension bending moment (Nm) 26
Maximum Nij 0.31
Chest maximum compression (mm) 29
Legs
Femur force - left (kN) 3.0
Femur force - right (kN) 2.6
Knee displacement - left (mm) 7
Knee displacement - right (mm) 4
Maximum tibia index - left 0.44
Maximum tibia index - right 0.84
Tibia axial force - left (kN) 1.1
Tibia axial force - right (kN) 4.4
Foot acceleration (g)
Left 78
Right 82

How the moderate overlap front test is conducted