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Old 08-28-2009, 06:29 PM   #6
PsyDoc
 
Drives: Soon-to-be 1st Gen
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Southeast
Posts: 249
I do not know what GM would do differently. I bought a car in 2006 that had a 5-star rating without side-impact air bags. Toward the end of 2006 when the newer models came standard with side-impact air bags, my earlier model was lowered to 4-stars. Why? I do not know, perhaps the standards changed. In 2007, there was a pretty exhaustive study looking at crash test ratings and real-world safety. The one thing I remember about the findings was that cars geared toward hot rodders or younger drivers (e.g., sports cars) had higher fatality rates regardless of the crash test rating.
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