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Confirmed: Toyota only reinforced one side of the Prius (photos inside)

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Main Forum' started by E46Prius, Aug 15, 2015.

  1. PriusInParadise

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    Just spitballing, here.

    Is there in fact a deficiency in the right front? I don't know.
    After viewing the left front small overlap test videos, two issues stand out to me.

    One is that the steering column is displaced to the right, taking the driver's frontal airbag with it. This appears to allow the driver's head to "shoot the gap" between the frontal airbag and the side curtain airbag and contact the windshield pillar.

    For the right front position, the front passenger airbag is mounted to the instrument panel, and is much larger than the driver's frontal airbag. Whether or not the performance of the front passenger airbag is compromised during a right front small overlap collision has not been demonstrated, as far as I know.

    The second is intrusion into the driver's footbox, often by the front wheel.
    For the right front footbox, there are no pedals or parking brake control to deal with, so there may be sufficient space to prevent injury.

    By the way, one more thing I learned that Toyota did was to source the alloy wheels from only one vendor. Maybe better control over the rigidity of the wheel.
    Better to have the wheel disintegrate than to get up close and personal with the driver's legs.
     
  2. energyandair

    energyandair Active Member

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    Perhaps they could have but perhaps doing so would make no difference or make things less safe.
    I don't think that there is any way for us to know and i don't intend to lose any sleep over it.
     
    bisco likes this.
  3. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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