Back in the 1980’s, government crash tests were heralded as the key for consumers to pick a safer car. Beginning with frontal collision tests and eventually branching out to side-impact and rollover tests, automakers soon learned how to engineer their cars specifically to garner top five-star ratings from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s assessments. Today it’s difficult to find a model that gets less than four stars in any regard, which tends to make true comparisons of various models’ crashworthiness difficult.
And it’s made only more so by the fact that comparisons of frontal crash tests results are only relevant within specific size and weight classes. This means that a subcompact car that gets a five star ratings isn’t necessarily safer than a full-size model that gets only four stars for occupant protection in a head-on collision. The ratings also don’t take into consideration technology that can help motorists avoid getting into a crash in the first place.
Helping to correct these deficiencies, NHTSA is implementing a revamped five-star rating system beginning this fall with 55 of the most popular 2011 models across all car and truck classes. As before, low-volume luxury and sports cars will fall under the radar of the new ratings systems. In addition to tougher crash tests that will likely result in the agency issuing fewer stars for many models, cars will be rated according to a single overall safety score and will be rated against each other rather than against a standard performance level. It will also provide consumers with information about new advanced crash avoidance technologies, such as lane departure and forward collision warning systems.
While further details are as-yet unavailable, we applaud NHTSA for helping to bring its new car assessment program into the 21st Century. There may be some surprises in the first round of test results, with some former five-star-rated cars now getting as few as two stars, NHTSA says, so stay tuned.
No comments:
Post a Comment