Some things stood out to me. For instance, the 10 failed cars are lumped into one grouping, and the two cars that passed into another grouping. "Passing" was considered to have both occupants have a HIC below 1,000 and chest G's under 60. If either of those criteria were exceeded for driver or passenger, the vehicle "failed". NHTSA wouldn't release numeric results until 1981. The Strada's performance, while above average for the time, was substantially worse than the Chevette; while both had chest G's in the low 40's for each occupant, the Chevette occupants experienced HICs in the 700 range, while the Strada's driver and passenger scored 860 and 941, respectively, meaning the Strada "squeaked by".
Sorted by average injury risk between the two occupants, the results would be:
Highlighted in red are results that are likely to be fatal.
1. Chevy Chevette - 14% (14% D, 14% P) - 662 HIC/45 Chest (D) - 707 HIC/40 Chest (P)
2. Fiat Strada - 19% (17% D, 21% P) - 860/41 - 941/43
3. Toyota Corolla Tercel - 35% (32% D, 37% P) - 1102/49 - 1159/54
4. VW Rabbit Convertible - 35% (47% D, 23% P) - 1327/49 - 802/53
5. Datsun 200SX - 38% (49% D, 24% P) - 1249/62 - 1003/44
6. Toyota Corolla - 59% (39% D, 79% P) - 838/69 - 1162/92
7. Audi 4000 - 61% (64% D, 58% P) - 1371/70 - 1460/45
8. Datsun 310 - 74% (49% D, 99% P) - 1135/68 - 2024/108
9. Subaru GLF - 76% (51% D, 100% P) - 1101/72 - 2858/94
10. Honda Civic - 80% (99% D, 60% P) - 2710/53 - 1511/46
11. Honda Prelude - 90% (100% D, 79% P) - 3063/51 - 1778/43
12. Mazda 626 - 94% (92% D, 96% P) - 1449/101 - 2248/54
In this breakdown, we see three groups of vehicles - the vehicles that passed, indicating that serious injury was unlikely, the "better" group of failing vehicles, where serious injury was likely but fatality still unlikely; and the "worse" group of failing vehicles, where at least one occupant (and in the 626's case, both) occupants would be likely to suffer fatal injury.
This undermines the importance of releasing the numerical results (NHTSA released the HIC and chest G values beginning in 1981, and began issuing "star" ratings in 1994 that put the vehicles in five bands of injury risk values). There is only a 16% risk difference between the Strada and the two "best" performing failed vehicles, whereas there's a 59% risk difference between the "best" failed vehicles (the Tercel and Rabbit) and the worst (the 626).
By the way, in the NHTSA five-star system used from 1994 to 2010, every vehicle on this list ranked from 7th to 12th (the Audi down) would get only 1 star for both occupants. The Corolla would get 2 stars driver, 1 star passenger; the Rabbit and 200SX, 1 star driver, 3 stars passenger; the Tercel 3 stars driver, 2 stars passenger, the Strada 4 stars driver, 3 stars passenger; and the Chevette 4 stars on both sides.
Very few vehicles of the time would earn any five star ratings; the best performer of 1980, the Cadillac Seville, would earn 4 stars driver and the full 5 stars for the front passenger.
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