Understand car safety ratings
If you’re buying a new car and safety is one of your top priorities, it’s crucial to understand how cars are rated for safety.
In the United States, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety tests passenger vehicles for safety and assigns them a rating.
IIHS describes itself as “an independent, nonprofit scientific and educational organization dedicated to reducing deaths, injuries and property damage from motor vehicle crashes through research and evaluation and through education of consumers, policymakers and safety professionals.”
IIHS tests evaluate a car’s crashworthiness — how well it protects its occupants in a crash — and its crash avoidance and mitigation — or technology that can prevent a crash or lessen its severity, according to IIHS.
The organization also awards the Top Safety Pick and Top Safety Pick+ designations.
TYPES OF TESTS
IIHS conducts tests for frontal crash, side crash, roof strength, head restraints and seats, front crash prevention, headlight evaluation and Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children (LATCH) evaluation. IIHS purchases vehicles from the dealer just like a consumer would.
THE RATINGS
You can search any vehicle’s ratings on the IIHS website (IIHS.org). For each test type, the website lists a rating of good, acceptable, marginal or poor, based on the test results. The website also lists available safety features on each model, such as daytime running lights, blind spot warning, lane departure warning and lane departure prevention, making it a valuable shopping tool for anyone who is safety conscious.
The website also offers other measures of safety for vehicles, such as insurance losses by make and model, and driver death
rates for more than 200 models.
RECALL NOTICES
Another way to do your homework on the safety of a vehicle is to check for recalls. Enter the vehicle’s identification number, or VIN, at www.nhtsa.gov/recalls. The website archives recalls issued for most consumer vehicles over the past 15 years, as well as car-related products such as car seats, tires and equipment.