Well that was kinda of my whole point. The FRS/BRZ was so well designed for safety that it did pretty well for a test it wasn't designed for. Also the larger cars faired better due to physics.

"Scary"? The new GTI (Mk7) got a "good" rating for the IIHS small overlap test. Based on this finding alone, I'd feel safer in the VW than in my Subaru. This being said, I like my car and am delighted to see it earned an "acceptable" rating.

In related matters, I drove a top-of-the-line Golf TDI in Europe for a week this Summer. Superb car -- will be testing the GTI at home this weekend. I expect a different type of fun than the one that can be had with the twins. For a comparison of the two, AutoCar had a nice discussion of the two last year.