New Car Safety Ratings Explained - Yahoo Autos (blog)

It pioneered automobile safety ratings globally in 1978, says Gordon Trowbridge, NHTSA’s director of communications. The first is to provide accurate, reliable information to consumers about the crash protection offered by new or used vehicles they are considering buying. In particular, he says, it allows car shoppers to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of various vehicles when it comes to crash worthiness. David Zuby, executive vice president and chief research officer for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, says there’s a secondary goal to his organization’s testing (and one Trowbridge says NHTSA also focuses on): getting manufacturers to... They may not score good results when we first initiate a test but we see them make changes that lead to better scores,” Zuby says. When it comes to rating the cars, NHTSA uses a straightforward star rating system with five stars being the highest rating. However, NHTSA ratings are split into ratings for vehicles from 2010 and older vehicles, and vehicles from 2011 and newer. What that means, Trowbridge says, is consumers can’t make a direct comparison between 2011 and newer models and those made from 1990 to 2010. Since 2011, NHTSA ratings have included an overall score summarizing the categories of frontal crash,... Source: www.yahoo.com