Test procedures for evaluating vehicle compatibility were investigated based on accident analysis and crash tests. This paper summarises the research reported by Japan to the IHRA Compatibility Working Group. Passenger cars account for the largest share of injuries in head-on collisions in Japan and were identified as the first target for tackling vehicle compatibility in Japan. To ascertain situations in collisions between vehicles of different sizes, we conducted crash tests between minicars and large cars, and between small cars and large cars. The deformation and acceleration of the minicar and small car is greater than that of large cars. ODB, Overload and MDB tests were performed as procedures for evaluating vehicle compatibility. In overload tests, methods to evaluate the strength of the passenger compartment were examined, and it is found that this test procedure is suitable for evaluating the strength of passenger compartments. The MDB test is a procedure taking into account the effects of vehicle mass in evaluating vehicle compatibility. The MDB tests with three different barrier faces indicated problems with MDB override and bottoming-out, which have a great effect on the behaviour of the test vehicles.
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