roshke
July 10, 2011, 2:29pm
21
<p>You are right, I was speaking more broadly -should have been more precise and said <em>among</em> the worst profile for any 2011 passenger car ( was not including trucks or vans). IMO it’s in the bottom 10%:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.informedforlife.org/demos...ORDERJUNE9.pdf[/url] ”>http://www.informedforlife.org/demos...ORDERJUNE9.pdf</a></p> ;
<p>How Forbes caved to pressure on ranking the Smart car:http://www.informedforlife.org/demos...%20Spike...pdf[/url] ”>http://www.informedforlife.org/demos...%20Spike...pdf</a></p> ;
<p>
Fatality rates in some vehicles are more than 20x higher than others. Consumers determined to learn which vehicles are safest, and who seek guidance from NHTSA and IIHS crash-test ratings, often find it very difficult to utilize these resources effectively, primarily for the following reasons:</p>
<p>(1) Omission by both agencies to factor into their ratings the significant role of vehicle weight in multi-vehicle collisions. Although both agencies warn consumers not to compare frontal crash test results between vehicles varying more than 250 lbs. they do not provide guidance on how you should consider weight.</p>
<p>(2) Lack of risk apportionment based on the relative importance of each rating category. For example, IIHS presents ratings for frontal, side and rear impact, however 52% of fatalities are associated with frontal impact vs. 27% for side, vs. only 4% for rear, leaving interpretation of the ratings to the consumer. Prior to model year 2011 NHTSA also presented individual ratings (frontal and side impact and rollover risk) without integrating them. However, commencing with model year 2011, NHTSA’s new rating system combines these risks into an ‘Overall Vehicle Score’ (click here for detailed description of NHTSA’s new rating system for 2011). [While this change for 2011 is an improvement the new rating system still fails to include the effects of vehicle weight and also ignores the IIHS ratings.]</p>
<p>(3) Both NHTSA and IIHS lump vehicles into very broad rating categories — For example, 94% of 2010 model year vehicles received the best possible frontal rating, GOOD by IIHS and 99% received either 5-stars or 4-stars by NHTSA. This incorrectly portrays all of these vehicles to be equivalently safe.</p>
<p>(4) Virtually no recognition by either agency that the other agency exists. The frontal and side impact ratings of these agencies complement each other due to substantial differences in testing protocols, whereas some risk categories are only addressed by a single agency, e.g., only NHTSA rates rollover and only IIHS rates rear impact risk.
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<p>While the iihs scores ARE more stringent in one sense, they also happen to test different things. A high iihs score and a lousy government test score in a vehicle under 3000 pounds is quite significant.</p>