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 U.S. government's rollover offenders list.

Ford's two-wheel drive Explorer Sport Trac rated the worst of all 2004 vehicles tested by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for rollovers. (Photo: Ford Motor Company of Canada)

The worst rated of all 2004 vehicles tested by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which included cars, vans, trucks and SUVs, was Ford's 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 couldn't 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, sold only in the U.S.

Mazda's RX-8 is considered to be the safest vehicle tested, with an 8 percent chance of becoming unstable and flipping over. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, Canadian Auto Press)

The NHTSA had previously been criticized for vague rollover ratings, a claim that it's 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. Mazda's 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.