Dodge Failed 84% of Small Overlap Tests. Volvo and Subaru Failed None.

The small overlap test loads only a quarter of the front of the car, outside the main structural rails. Energy goes into the wheel, the firewall and the footwell rather than into the crush structure.

It is the hardest crash evaluation in common use, and when it arrived the industry split.

Volvo has 150 rated vehicles and no failures at all. Dodge has 70 and 59 of them failed.

Why some brands arrived ready

The test was modelled on a real crash pattern — hitting a tree or a pole with the corner of the car — that some manufacturers had been designing against internally for years.

Volvo and Subaru both had existing internal requirements around offset frontal impacts, so their structures already carried load paths outside the main rails. When the public test appeared, nothing needed changing.

Brands without that history needed a redesign, and a structure is not something you revise mid-cycle. That is why the failures cluster in brands running long product cycles with heavily shared platforms.

The industry response was fast and total

From three cars in five failing to one in fifty. The pattern is the one that repeats across every evaluation we have examined: head restraints went from 88% failing to zero, headlights halved in four years, and the rear seat failed immediately when it was finally measured.

What it means for a used purchase

This is the single largest safety difference between a 2012 car and a 2020 one, and it does not appear in any listing.

A vehicle from the early 2010s has a better than even chance of a Poor or Marginal result on the hardest frontal test, and its five-star rating will not mention it — the star system does not include this evaluation.

Check the rating for the exact model year before assuming an older car from a safety-reputable brand is covered. Between 2012 and 2016 the same nameplate often changed completely.