Thanks to Gary H. for sending us this information from Car & Driver Daily Auto Insider.
The 2001 Honda Civic coupe and the Volvo S80 sedan both earned the top mark of five stars for passenger protection in front and side crash tests conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The test include a front-impact crash which measures the effect of a 35 mile-per-hour barrier impact on dummies in the driver and front-passenger seats. The side-impact tests measure results of a 38.5-mph collision on a driver and a rear passenger.
The NHTSA also conducted crash tests on nine other 2001 model year vehicles including the new Pontiac Aztek sport utility vehicle, which scored five stars for the driver side and three stars for the rear passenger in the side impact test.
The Nissan Quest minivan got five-star ratings on both frontal tests and on the driver side-impact crash, and four stars for the rear-passenger test. The Honda Civic four-door and Lincoln Town Car both received five stars for the frontal tests and four stars for the side-impact crashes. The Chevy Tracker scored the top rating for the rear passenger and four stars for the driver side-impact test.
The Honda two-door Accord got a four-star rating for both side-impact tests while the Oldsmobile Aurora and Kia Sephia each scored three stars for the driver and four stars for the rear passenger in the side-impact tests.