NHTSA Rates Ford SUVs Poorly for Rollovers

Mazda RX-8 Considered Most Stable Vehicle Tested

Only a week after Ford Motor Company issued a statement declaring it would add a standard anti-rollover system to the 2005 Explorer (see News for Aug 2, 2004: Ford to Add Standard Anti-Rollover System to 05 Explorer), the popular sport utility showed up near the top of the governments rollover offenders list.

The worst rated of all 2004 vehicles tested by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which included cars, vans, trucks and SUVs, was Fords two-wheel drive Explorer Sport Trac. Also poorly rated was the Explorer Sport Trac four-wheel drive, the Explorer four-door, two-wheel drive, and the Mountaineer four-door, two-wheel drive. How poorly rated? They couldnt have done any worse, taking up the bottom six places of the top-heavy sport utility segment. The Mercury Mountaineer is an architectural clone of the Explorer.

The NHTSA had previously been criticized for vague rollover ratings, a claim that its attempting to leave behind now that it has assigned a percentage risk for rollovers to its new rating system. The percentage is derived from mathematical calculations of vehicle dimensions, weight, and dynamics, the latter based on track testing.

As a rule of thumb, cars do better than most sport utility vehicles. Mazdas RX-8 is considered to be the safest vehicle tested, with an 8 percent chance of becoming unstable and flipping over. In contrast, the worst faring two-wheel-drive Explorer Sport Trac has a close to a 35 percent chance of experiencing a rollover.

This news was not taken lightly by Ford, of course, being that it realizes concerns still remain in consumers minds since the Firestone tire rollover debacle in 2000

claimed 271 lives and caused yet more injuries, followed by hundreds of related lawsuits and associated negative press. To appease consumers the domestic automaker stated that internal data it has accumulated shows the Explorer/Mountaineer models panned by the NHTSA to perform at the same as or better level than rival SUVs.

"Were trying to work through the data and see how NHTSAs applying these numbers. While we believe the NHTSA rating system has some value, we dont believe its a good indicator of how a vehicle performs in the real world," commented Fords Kristen Kinley.

While rollovers only represent 3 percent of accidents, they claim more lives than other MVAs. To be more specific, one third of all passenger vehicle deaths, which is more than 10,000 people, die each year in rollovers.

For this reason Ford will be installing a new anti-rollover system in many of its 2005 model SUVs including the 2005 Explorer, dubbed Roll Stability Control (RSC), said to automatically react to tilting. Excessive body lean is a precursor to rollovers. The system works by automatically reducing engine speed while moderately activating the brakes.

The additional SUVs to get RSC will be 2005 versions of the Explorer-based Mercury Mountaineer and Lincoln Aviator, plus the Lincoln Navigator full-size SUV. Currently, RSC was only available as an option on the two Lincoln SUVs, having been introduced on 2004 models. The system, developed by Ford and supplier Continental Teves, will be available as optional equipment on the 05 Ford Expedition full-size sport utility.

The new NHTSA rollover ratings can be found by visiting www.safecar.gov.