Cars of the British brand MINI offer an excellent combination of driving fun, expressive design and premium quality – and their level of safety is exemplary, too. This is demonstrated by the small overlap crash test carried out by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) in the USA. First introduced in 2012, the test was applied by the institute’s safety experts to twelve vehicles from the small car and compact segment, all produced in the model year 2014. The MINI Countryman was the only one to achieve the top score of “good”, thereby emphasising once again its exceptional standing within the competitive environment. It also received the coveted “Top Safety Pick” (TSP) award. The institute issued the following statement: “Of the twelve models tested, the MINI Cooper Countryman is the only vehicle in the small car segment to achieve the top score of ‘good’ on the small overlap front crash test.”
The IIHS pole crash test simulates a head-on collision with an immovable obstacle at a speed of around 64 km/h. In crash tests commonly performed in Europe cars strike the obstacle off centre, but the IIHS test is different in that it involves an impact against a post that only covers a quarter of the front section. As a result, it is not possible to absorb the entire impact energy and the extent of deformation is more extreme in the areas affected.
Cars only score well if the passenger cell remains intact and the airbags interact with the safety belts to help avoid head injuries. If the passenger cell creases, the seats and airbags are shifted and no longer offer full protection. In order to be able to achieve a good score on this test, cars have to be designed from the outset in such a way that external forces are distributed across the entire front section of the vehicle in such an extreme scenario – as is the case in the MINI Countryman.
The MINI Countryman already put in an impressive performance at its market launch in 2010 on the Euro NCAP crash test, on which it achieved the top score of five stars. This score was likewise due to the fact that the car’s body structure is optimised from a safety point of view and it is fitted with extensive safety features as standard, guaranteeing highly effective occupant protection for both adults and children in various types of collision.
The high level of occupant protection in the MINI Countryman is based on an integrated safety concept applied to all models of the MINI brand. Highly resilient bracket structures and precisely defined deformation zones ensure that the forces acting in the event of a collision are selectively absorbed and kept away from the extremely rigid passenger cell. The bracket systems in the floor assembly, side frame and bulkhead as well as in the front and rear of the car are harmonised in such a way that the impact energy is distributed to as many body elements as possible and does not penetrate the passenger compartment. This guarantees an extremely high level of protection in the most diverse scenarios.
