If you’ve ever bought a vehicle, you’ll know that there are all kinds of features to consider. Do you want something that can handle rough roads, or are you looking for a fuel-efficient commuter car? Would you like a bunch of bells and whistles, or do you prefer a more basic vehicle? Of course, one thing that every vehicle will have is a car safety rating issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). While there are other organizations that issue safety ratings for vehicles of all descriptions, such as the IIHS, the NHTSA is the only one associated with the federal government. As such, it’s also the only one that’s legally required before a vehicle can be approved for sale.
Why are these ratings so important, though? They’re more than just a convenient way for consumers to tell how safe their potential new car is; they also motivate auto makers to design safer cars, which brings them more sales due to increased trust in their products. Even though most traffic accidents are due to carelessness on the part of the driver, the vehicles’ safety ratings can determine how serious the crash is. If the people involved were driving old or unsafe cars (which are often the same thing), they might be injured severely enough to seek out a lawyer specializing in pedestrian accidents and automobile collisions. Whatever the case, there’s no doubt that putting safety first is always a good idea.
As has been proven in the past, automakers can’t always be trusted to put safety first when designing a vehicle; this is why oversight is needed. Since the NHTSA ratings have been in effect, car manufacturers have been held accountable when it comes to safety features like seat belts, ABS, airbags, and all the other parts that are supposed to protect car occupants in the event of a crash.
NHTSA car safety ratings are fairly comprehensive, obviously, but they don’t quite tell the whole story. If you’re curious about how they work and what they mean, just keep reading!
How the NHTSA affects auto makers and consumers
Even though the agency has the authority to force auto makers to improve their products, complying with their rating system actually works to manufacturers’ advantages. Most consumers wouldn’t buy a car with an abysmal safety rating, but if an already well-liked vehicle gets a high NHTSA rating, that immediately has a positive effect on sales. Since so much depends on how their vehicles perform in crash and rollover tests, this means that automakers are highly motivated to do their best – or close to their best, anyway.
What about the consumers? As is probably clear by now, the NHTSA is definitely on their side, and this translates directly to less severe crashes and fewer fatalities on the roadways. The agency oversees more than just vehicle testing, though; they also educate drivers on the importance of road safety, issue safety recalls when needed, and test products like booster seats and child car seats.
What the NHTSA ratings measure (and what they don’t)
According to the requirements of the New Car Assessment Program (or NCAP), every new car is tested in two different scenarios. The crash tests measure the effects of both front and side impacts, and the rollover test measures how far a vehicle can be pushed before it rolls over. Conditions are kept more or less the same for each car, to ensure consistency in the results.
- Crash testing
It’s probably already obvious how a crash test works, but there are a couple of specifications to consider here. For example, the vehicle being tested isn’t just driven into a stationary barrier. For the front crash test, they use an obstacle of a similar size, and run it into the car while both of them are moving towards each other at 35 mph. This simulates the conditions of many front crashes, which are usually more severe than when a car simply runs into a stationary object.
The side-impact crash test is set up pretty similarly, but with one main difference. Instead of each object moving at the same speed, the car moves at 34 mph, and the other object goes 17 mph. And again, both of them are roughly the same size.
These tests are good for demonstrating how any given vehicle would perform in a crash with a similarly sized car, but that leaves out a key piece of data: how would these vehicles hold up against something that was way bigger than they were? A compact commuter car might have an above-average safety rating in the crash tests, but that doesn’t mean it won’t crumple on impact with a Ford F-150.
- Rollover tests
A method called “dynamic vehicle testing” is used to establish how much a vehicle can take before it rolls over. This depends on factors like the track width, and how high the center of gravity is. By testing the car in a variety of situations, the NHTSA can establish how prone it is to rolling over during sharp turns or risky high-speed maneuvers.
How the ratings work
The NHTSA issues ratings using a star system, but for some reason the two different types of tests don’t get the same number of stars.
- Both kinds of crash test ratings can get up to five stars
These tests measure how safe the car occupants are during a crash; in order to be considered safe, a vehicle would need to get at least three stars.
- The rollover rating can get up to four stars
This test doesn’t actually measure occupant safety; it only measures how likely a vehicle is to roll over under specific circumstances. The NHTSA ratings may not be the final word on how safe a vehicle is, but they are constantly updating the test parameters to better represent the real-life risks of driving. All in all, they’re still a pretty reliable way to determine whether or not the car you’re considering will keep you in one piece.