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Chevy Colorado, GMC Canyon miss five-star safety ratings

The 2015 Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon, GM's new mid-size pickups, offer more safety features than rival models from Toyota and Nissan, but there's still room for improvement.

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Jae C. Hong/AP/File
The 2015 Chevrolet Colorado is introduced at the Chevrolet booth at the Los Angeles Auto Show in 2013.

GM’s new mid-size pickups, the 2015 GMC Canyon and 2015 Chevrolet Colorado, offer more available safety features than rival models like the Toyota Tacoma and Nissan Frontier.

But do they have above-and-beyond occupant protection? Some results have been released by the federal government, and while not complete, they’re already indicating that there’s some room for improvement.

In New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) crash-test ratings for the 2015Canyon and Colorado, both models have earned four-star overall ratings.

That’s in their Extended Cab layouts, which are expected to be somewhat more popular than the Crew Cab body styles. As such, the Colorado and Canyon earn four stars in the frontal crash category and five stars in side impact—figuring to a four-star overall rating. These models earn three stars in the rollover category, due to their high center of mass (although they didn’t tip in the dynamic portion of the test).

Federal crash-test results aren’t yet out for the Canyon or Colorado in Crew Cab form, where they include two full-size, front-hinged rear doors and much more usable back-seat space. Results could be quite different for that body style.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) also hasn’t yet released crash-test results for the Colorado or Canyon yet—except for moderate frontal impact, where they’ve already been given a ‘good’ score.

The Colorado and Canyon are the first trucks in their class to offer potentially accident-avoiding active-safety systems—although the IIHS only gives the available Forward Collision Alert system (part of a Safety Package) its ‘basic’ rating for front crash prevention, an indication that this system warns of a potential hazard but doesn’t brake the vehicle.

See our full review on the 2015 GMC Canyon and 2015 Chevrolet Colorado for more on these vehicles’ features, performance, and a lot more.

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