Good news for safety-conscious car-buyers: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is about to launch an overhauled crash-test program that makes it tougher for any car to earn five stars in crash worthiness.
For 30 years, NHTSA’s 5-Star program has been a valuable resource for consumers looking to buy the safest vehicle. The tougher program will be used for testing and classifying the safety performance of all passenger vehicles. NHTSA has announced it has 55 vehicles from the 2011 model year scheduled to kick off this new rating, due to start rolling out in late September.
The key change in the assignment of star ratings is that cars will be rated against each other rather than against a standard performance level. Under the current system so many cars get top scores that they all look alike. The new rating system will better identify the top performers. Some cars that currently have 5 stars may drop to 2 stars under the new system, NHTSA officials told us.
The stricter criteria include more comprehensive and tougher crash tests (including a new pole test and a smaller, female-sized crash dummy), a single overall safety score, and information on crash avoidance technologies, such as lane departure and collision warning. NHTSA claims the updated program will also help consumers find cars with technology aimed at avoiding a crash in the first place.
Since these new ratings will make it more difficult to achieve a high safety score, manufacturers will have an incentive to raise the bar when designing cars.
The first vehicles to be evaluated under the new system include 24 passenger cars, 20 SUVs, two minivans, and nine pickup trucks. The list includes some new and redesigned models such as the Chevrolet Cruze, Ford Fiesta, Honda Odyssey, and Jeep Grand Cherokee.
The new scores can’t be compared against results from previous years, since both the testing and scoring criteria will be different. Once the tests are completed, the new ratings will be posted on safercar.gov.
—Liza Barth
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