Aug 16 2013

Near rural Virginia road, inside a big room, loads of lights are used to illuminate the place where a minivan will crash into the barriers made up of concrete and steel at a speed of 40 miles per hour. Moments later there is a horrible crash and the head of the dummy who was sitting on the driving seat came to rest on an airbag. After seeing all this wreckage Chuck Thomas, Chief Engineer for auto safety research at Honda motor Co. (7267) US, takes a sigh of relief

For the core customers of minivan, who are mostly woman, safety is very important therefore the results of this test are so important that Honda decided to redesign its Odyssey.

After August 29 the results will be announced which will help determine whether to pick Odyssey as “top safety pick plus”. It would allow Honda to categorize its top selling minivan as the safest vehicle.

In 2012, Odyssey’s passenger compartment collapsed while the test was being developed. This test would have scored very poor if it had been for real. Michelle Krebs, Senior Analyst for auto research Edmunds dot com said “For a vehicle like the Honda Odyssey, it’s not design. It’s for carrying families and carrying them safely”