2004 Mercury Sable

large car / 4-door sedan

Crashworthiness

Rating overview
Moderate overlap front: original test
Head restraints & seats

Key

  • G
    Good
  • A
    Acceptable
  • M
    Marginal
  • P
    Poor
  • Superior
  • Advanced
  • Basic

Some ratings use a scale of Poor to Good. Others range from Basic to Superior.

Moderate overlap front: original test

Rating applies to 2000-05 models

Tested vehicle: 2000 Ford Taurus SE 4-door

The Ford Taurus and the Mercury Sable were redesigned for the 2000 model year to provide more advanced occupant restraint features. The Sable was discontinued after the 2005 model year, and the 2006 Taurus was sold primarily to fleets. The Taurus was then discontinued after the 2006 model year.

Overall evaluation
Structure and safety cage
Driver injury measures
Head/neck
Chest
Leg/foot, left
Leg/foot, right
Driver restraints and dummy kinematics

Action shot taken during the frontal offset crash test.

The dummy's position in relation to the steering wheel and instrument panel after the crash test indicates that the driver's survival space was maintained well.

Intrusion into the driver's space was minimal, and all leg and foot injury measures were low.

Power-adjustable brake and accelerator pedals that move back and forth are an option that allows drivers of varying heights to maintain a safe distance from the steering wheel yet still reach the foot pedals.

Technical measurements for this test

Measures of occupant compartment intrusion on driver side

Test ID CF00010
Footwell intrusion
Footrest (cm) 8
Left (cm) 12
Center (cm) 14
Right (cm) 13
Brake pedal (cm) 14
Instrument panel rearward movement
Left (cm) 2
Right (cm) 1
Steering column movement
Upward (cm) 6
Rearward (cm) 1
A-pillar rearward movement (cm) 3

Driver injury measures

Test ID CF00010
Head
HIC-15 170
Peak gs at hard contact no contact
Neck
Tension (kN) 1.4
Extension bending moment (Nm) 13
Maximum Nij 0.27
Chest maximum compression (mm) 28
Legs
Femur force - left (kN) 2.1
Femur force - right (kN) 1.2
Knee displacement - left (mm) 0
Knee displacement - right (mm) 3
Maximum tibia index - left 0.43
Maximum tibia index - right 0.67
Tibia axial force - left (kN) 1.0
Tibia axial force - right (kN) 2.4
Foot acceleration (g)
Left 51
Right 50

About the original moderate overlap front test

Head restraints & seats

Seat type: All seats

Overall evaluation
Dynamic rating
Seat/head restraint geometry
Technical measurements for this test
Seat type All seats
Geometry
Backset (mm) 52
Distance below top of head (mm) 65
Seat design parameters
Pass/fail Fail
Max T1 acceleration (g) 10.7
Head contact time (ms) 118
Force rating 3
Neck forces
Max neck shear force (N) 377
Max neck tension (N) 1,220

About the head restraint & seat test
Currently, IIHS tests apply only to front seats.