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.
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| 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.
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| 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.