Saab 9-3 Sport Sedan Is First Car Named "Double Best Pick" in IIHS Crash Tests

Saab's "Real-Life Safety" philosophy earned the Saab 9 3 Sport Sedan a "Double Best Pick" designation from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), the first passenger car to achieve this distinction.

Eight mid-size cars were crashed in the latest round of IIHS side-impact testing. The Saab 9-3 is the only mid-size car yet to earn a "Best Pick" in the test. Important to note is that this result was achieved with standard equipment only. Among the Saab 9-3 Sport Sedan's standard safety features are adaptive, dual-stage front airbags, side-impact airbags engineered into the front seats, seat belts featuring crash pre-tensioners and load limiters, and Saab's "second generation" Saab Active Head Restraint (SAHR 2). In addition to the seat-mounted side-impact airbags, the Saab 9-3 Sport Sedan also features side-curtain airbags that deploy from the ceiling, offering protection to front and rear occupants. This added protection is especially effective during an offset frontal crash, as the IIHS test duplicates, when the vehicle rotates after the collision.

"We are extremely pleased with the IIHS 'Double Best Pick' designation for the Saab 9-3," said Debra Kelly-Ennis, President of Saab USA. "In both the frontal and side-impact tests, the car's various safety systems performed as designed to help reduce the risk of injury."

As a further affirmation of Saab's safety achievements, the 2003 Saab 9-3 Sport Sedan, 2004 9-3 Convertible and 2003 Saab 9-5 have each earned five stars, the highest rating possible, in the European New Car Assessment Program's (EuroNCAP) frontal and side-impact crash tests. EuroNCAP, Europe's leading crash-test agency, conducts tests on European model variants using three types of collisions: a frontal offset barrier impact and two different kinds of side impacts. The test results are then evaluated according to a large number of parameters relating to driver and passenger safety.

Although Saab welcomes IIHS and EuroNCAP's independent findings, its work in crash impact protection will continue to be based on a "Real-Life Safety" strategy, in which Saab's goal is to develop vehicles that provide safety in real-world crashes.

More information on EuroNCAP testing program can be found at www.euroncap.com. IIHS crash-test results can be found at www.iihs.org.