Audi A6 ranks best in front, side crashes

WASHINGTON, July 18 (UPI) -- The 2005 Audi A6 has been given good ratings and a "best pick" designation in front and side crash tests by the U.S. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Another large luxury car, the 2006 Infiniti M35, also earned good ratings in both tests and a "best pick" for crashworthiness in front, but not side, crashes.

Both automakers requested the tests and provided vehicles to the institute for testing.

"Audi and Infiniti are ahead of many of their competitors in side-impact protection," said institute Chief Operating Officer Adrian Lund. "They engineered the new models to do well in both of the institute's tests, and they want to get the results out more quickly to demonstrate to buyers their cars' state-of-the-art crashworthiness."

Each vehicle's overall evaluation is based on measurements of intrusion into the occupant compartment, injury measures from a Hybrid III dummy positioned in the driver seat and analysis of slow-motion film to assess how well the restraint system controlled dummy movement during the test.