IIHS Front Crash "Best Picks"

  • 2004 F-150 is a "best pick" in IIHS frontal crash test; the first pickup truck to receive this honor
  • 2004 Ford Freestar is a "best pick" in IIHS frontal crash test
  • 2004 Mercury Monterey is a "best pick" in IIHS frontal crash test

NHTSA Front Crash "5 Stars "

  • 2004 Ford Freestar earns five stars for driver and front passenger in NHTSA frontal crash test
  • 2004 Mercury Monterey earns five stars for driver and front passenger in NHTSA frontal crash test

DEARBORN, Mich., Dec. 19, 2003 - The all-new 2004 Ford F-150 pickup truck and the new Ford Freestar and Mercury Monterey minivans received "good" rankings and were named "best picks" in the most recent round of high-speed frontal offset crash testing performed by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) – the institute's highest possible rating.

The F-150 is the first, and only, pickup truck to receive a "best pick" in the high-speed frontal offset crash category.

In addition to the IIHS high-speed frontal offset crash test rankings, the 2004 Freestar and Mercury Monterey also achieved the highest government rating from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for frontal crash safety by receiving five stars for both driver and right front passenger positions. The new F-150 will be tested next year.

"The new F-150 has proven itself in our most extensive impact testing ever for a truck," said Steve Lyons, president of Ford Division. "The 2004 Ford Freestar and Mercury Monterey add new technologies designed to further improve on Ford Motor Company's leadership for safe minivans."

IIHS' frontal offset crash test is one of the most demanding tests of a vehicle’s structure. During the test, a vehicle is crashed at 40 mph into a deformable barrier on the driver's side only, rather than the full-frontal impact. Therefore, a much smaller area of the vehicle's front-end structure must dissipate all of the impact energy.

According to IIHS, the "good" rating for the F-150, Ford Freestar and Mercury Monterey mean that in a real-world crash of similar severity, belted occupants would likely walk away escaping serious injury. A "best pick" recommendation by IIHS means the ve hicle performed exceptionally well in all phases of the test and is at the top of the vehicle segment.

2004 FORD F-150

The new F-150 has been designed, engineered and manufactured to be a breakthrough product that resets the competitive benchmark within the full-size pickup truck segment. One of the product areas key to this effort is safety. The 2004 F-150 has been developed with a dedicated focus on safety, making it the safest F-150 ever, as is evidenced from the enhancements below:

  • Crash-optimized structure: If a collision is unavoidable, the new F-150 helps to protect its occupants with a structure designed to help absorb and dissipate crash energy and maintain the occupant compartment integrity.

    • Strong hydroformed front frame rails are built with computer-designed front horns, that fold accordion-style during an impact, to help manage and absorb crash forces.
    • A wave pattern was stamped into the front horns, tailoring the shape and wall thickness to create trigger points where the frame sections would begin to collapse to absorb the crash energy efficiently.
    • The front frame rails extend through cutouts in the fully boxed bumper beam to its front face, where they are welded in place, providing maximum crush space.