Y'know, blaring to us what you want us to know, while keeping quiet on what ain't quite as flattering, is something I call "error of omission." And now it seems Suzuki is guilty of it.
Its all-new Kizashi sedan was crash-tested by NHTSA, and as a result, the company sent out a press release. Under the heading 2010 Suzuki Kizashi Earns Highest Safety Ratings in NHTSA NCAP Crash Tests, the release said this:
American Suzuki Motor Corp. today announced that the 2010 Suzuki Kizashi (pronounced "Kee-Zah-Shee"), the company's first entry into the all-wheel-drive sport sedan segment, earned the highest possible ratings in the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) crash tests. The Kizashi was awarded a five-star rating in both the frontal and side-impact crash tests for all seating positions.
The NCAP rates vehicles to determine crashworthiness and rollover safety. The safety ratings are gathered during controlled crash and rollover tests conducted at NHTSA's test facilities, with five stars indicating the highest safety rating and one star the lowest.
The release followed up with information on the car, but not another word about those rollover tests. So I went to NTHSA's website and discovered that while Kizashi did indeed earn five stars for front and side impact, it only earned four in the rollover test. That's pretty much the norm, but that's not the same as earning the highest five-star safety rating overall.
Suzuki isn't alone; a couple of years ago, I caught Dodge pulling the same stunt with the IIHS ratings, which I wrote about here, and I'm sure there are many others who have been equally quiet about less-spectacular portions of their final scores. That's not the way to sell us on a car, fellas. I'm definitely not impressed.
