Facts, Features & Specs
Passive Safety Features
SAFETY FIRST
Frankly, we're kind of obsessed with exceeding expectations. So when challenged to endow MINIs with safety systems that would rank among the best on the road, we went into a frenzy. The result? An impressive set of safety features we term either Active (they help you avoid accidents) or passive (they help protect you in an accident), And on our 2002-2006 models, our ingenuity and hard work earned us a 4-star safety rating from NHTSA and a "best Pick" designation from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.* Score four for the obsessive.
Our incredibly strong side-impact door beams help protect both passenger and driver in the event of a collision. The advanced steels that go into every MINI provide increased strength and energy absorption. We use laser-welded blanks to build our cars that raise the strength of the pressing and create Advanced Crumple Zones which help spread the forces more evenly throughout the rigid unibody shell. In the event of an accident, each critical section of a MINI is ingeniously designed to absorb and spread energy in a manner that will keep harm as far away from the passengers as possible.
And then there are the airbags. All six of them: two in front, one on the side of each front seat, and two in the cockpit's headliner (these two are actually more accurately called "sausages" and utilize some pretty sophisticated AHPS II technology). But what should be increasingly clear is that almost every component of the car works to help protect its Motorers at all times.
*Tests conducted and resulting scores were for front and side impact ratings.
