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The introduction of the Smart ForTwo car in the United States has generated more interest from a safety standpoint than whether it'll save a little on gas. To that end, a couple of recent crash tests from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), have been conducted to see how the diminutive vehicle performed.

In the NHTSA crash tests for the front and back, the car received four stars for frontal protection and three for the passenger. In their side test it received five stars, but with the caveat that the driver door unlatched and opened, which would be a significant risk in being ejected.

For the IIHS test, which is far more stringent, a report today says the ForTwo received the highest ratings of Good, for botht he frontal-offset, as well as side-impact tests. Even so, the driver door performed the same in this test, with it also unlatching and opening on impact, reinforcing a significant driver ejection threat.

Of course the driver ejection threats are significantly decreased when a seatbelt is worn.

The car is 8'8" long, and powered by  a 1.0-liter turbocharged 3-cylinder engine which produces 84 horsepower. It is placed under the trunk floor behind the rear wheels. The transmission is a five-speed automated manual transmission. It can seat two people comfortably with the engine placement in the back. It gets about 33 mpg in the city and 41 mpg on the open road. The car weighs in at 1,800 lbs. and includes a steel safety cage.

While the European version includes side thorax bags, they won't be included in the version sold in the U.S.

Even with the decent safety ratings, these ratings are still in relationship to how a small car performs. The risk of death is still much higher in minicars than it is in larger vehicles, as IIHS reports say, "minicars experienced 106 driver deaths per million registered vehicles compared with 69 driver deaths in large cars."

In the end, for a small car it's has a solid safety rating, but it still can't be compared in any significant way with the safety of a larger car.

At this time there are over 30,000 reservations for the vehicle, with consumers putting down $99 to reserve the car. It has a base price of over $12,000, with a price of over $17,000 for a fully loaded convertible model.