At first glance, crash test results can be a bit confusing. Insurance agents said that the tests are very important, but as NewsChannel5's Ted Hart reports, many consumers don't even bother to look at them.
Carmakers often use crash test results to make changes.
If I like the car, I'm going to buy the car. Earlier this month, the new Ford Escape scored highest among small sport utility vehicles on the low speed bumper tests. But it scored poorly on the follow-up frontal offset crash at 40 mph. Overall, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety saw the results among the new smaller SUVs and was disappointed. Progressive Insurance puts all of the crash test results on its Web site and urges consumers to pay attention to both the bumper tests and frontal offset results.