Information about crashworthiness of their car
Car owners typically have access to information about their car’s cargo capacity, fuel economy, and safety features. However, most car owners do not have readily available information regarding the crashworthiness of their automobile. In fact, crash test scores are not always made public. Also, car owners and consumers are not usually provided with access to important information regarding how their vehicle or a vehicle they want to purchase performs crash test scenarios performed by government agencies or nonprofit organizations.
In a lot of cases, low sales volume cars such as luxury SUVs and sports cars do not have any crash test scores and ratings. However, about 97 percent of new motor vehicles made and sold in the United States have been tested for crashworthiness by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) and/or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). If a motor vehicle hasn’t been tested by one of these trusted, independent agencies. In that case, purchasers should consider a different motor vehicle or holding off purchasing the motor vehicle until the vehicle has been “crash” tested.
The high cost associated with testing is one of the primary reasons why 3% of vehicles are not tested, according to Consumer Reports. The IIHS and the NHTSA do not have the financial resources to test all motor vehicles. Therefore, the agencies prioritize the crash testing based on the sales volume of the automobiles for sale in the United States. Another consideration is the cost of the vehicle. This is why the IIHS and the NHTSA do not test vehicles manufactured by Land Rover, Porsche, or Jaguar. This is a problem since these three carmakers sell more than 185,000 of the 500,000 new motor vehicles in the United States that are not tested. This is because these vehicles only make up a small percentage of the total cars sold each year in the United States.
To see how your car measures up in terms of crashworthiness, simply visit IIHS and the NHTSA websites.
