The Kia Spectra (Cerato in Australia) is the first vehicle the US based Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has rated 'poor' in a frontal crash test since 2001. In part their comments included "The Kia Spectra's (Cerato) poor performance was a surprise," says Institute chief operating officer Adrian Lund. "Most manufacturers have figured out how to design vehicles to do a good job of protecting people in frontal crashes. Kia lags behind its competitors."

Since the announcement of the test results, Kia Motors has announced its conclusions on the crash tests recently carried out by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).

The Kia Spectra/Cerato has been designed and manufactured in strict accordance with crash test regulations and in consideration of various field accident conditions, in line with Kia’s absolute commitment to the safety of its products and, ultimately, its customers.

In earlier crash tests, the leading American automotive safety organization, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), awarded the Spectra (Cerato) a 4-Star rating for frontal impact performance after subjecting the Kia to its NCAP test programme. The maximum score is 5-Stars.

Kia’s International Public Relations Manager Christopher Dore said: “Occupant safety is an absolute priority for Kia. In the development of the Spectra (Cerato), we have put it through a battery of tests and we continue to have a high degree of confidence in the real-world protection offered by this vehicle.”

“However, we are taking the results of the IIHS test extremely seriously. We are evaluating the results of this current test on the Spectra (Cerato) and similar vehicles in its class to determine what improvements can be made to enhance overall vehicle safety,” said Mr. Dore.

Kia engineers are currently meeting with IIHS staff to determine what changes are necessary to improve test performance of the Spectra (Cerato). Kia Motors plans to retest the Spectra (Cerato) with the IIHS mid-2005, once engineering upgrades have been implemented, and is confident that it will be awarded an “acceptable” or “good” mark.