WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., Oct. 28 (UPI) -- The influential Consumer Reports magazine has reversed itself on recommendations for three Japanese imports -- all of them Toyota products.
The magazine also withdrew its recommendation for the Audi A4, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.
The three Toyota vehicles -- the Camry, the RAV4 and the Prius V -- have often been top picks by the magazine, but each of them and the Audi A4 did poorly on a new crash test, the Times reported.
"Now that more than 50 vehicles have gone through that test, our engineers feel we cannot recommend a vehicle that has a poor safety rating on a crash test," said C. Matt Fields, a spokesman for the magazine.
The new crash test is called the small overlap crash test. It was designed to simulate what happens when a collision involves just a quarter of the front end, specifically a corner impact crash on the driver's side.
Insurance companies initiated use of the small overlap crash test to provide more data, as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration tests for head-on, full-impact collisions, but not for accidents in which the brunt of the impact is at a front corner, the Times said.
Essentially, the full impact, head-on collision test got to the point where it was playing to the industry's strength, the Times said. A corner-first collision test, meanwhile, has not become a regulatory standard.
"There is valuable lifesaving data to be had, and it is in the economic interest of the insurance industry," said Jack Nerad, an analyst with industry research firm Kelley Blue Book.
He also said Consumer Reports reversing a recommendation could impact sales.
"Those people who buy Toyotas have a propensity for following Consumer Reports," Nerad said.
Toyota responded by saying the company would try harder.
"With the small over-lap test, the institute has raised the bar again, and we are responding to the challenge. We are looking at a range of solutions to achieve greater crash performance in this area," Toyota said in a statement.
