By Cindy Skrzycki
Tuesday, February 7, 2006
New car buyers will be seeing stars -- safety-rating stars -- in the not-too-distant future.
Starting in September 2007, browsers on showroom floors will be able to check the window sticker to see how the vehicle did in federal crash tests, along with the more typical information already listed, such as price, fuel economy and equipment.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued a proposal last week to meet a legislative mandate sponsored by Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio). The number of stars on the sticker will reflect how well the vehicle did in a battery of tests designed to predict the likelihood of serious injury in an accident. Currently, information on performance in front, side and rollover tests is posted in detail on the agency's Web site, Safercar.gov, where vehicles are rated with stars, one to five, with five being the best.
NHTSA laid out its proposals on information to be presented and how it might be displayed. Comments are due by March 31, with the appearance of the star ratings on cars, vans, sport-utility vehicles and small buses set for the 2008 model year.
"It's a major step forward to put stars on cars in showrooms," said Clarence Ditlow , executive director of the Center for Auto Safety , a nonprofit advocacy group. "Now the job is to make it as good as it can be."
Because sticker space is limited, NHTSA proposes to leave it up to manufacturers to decide where to include the stars.
The only requirement is that the information cover at least 8 percent of the sticker or be 4 1/2 by 3 1/2 inches. The label must direct buyers to the government's Web site, which includes pictures of the crash tests, the actual scores and explanations of anomalies that turn up in testing.
Even critics of the agency's testing system think giving consumers information at the point of sale is valuable and overdue. But most safety advocates want more-meaningful stars. They want some NHTSA tests to be tweaked or changed to make them more demanding and representative of what happens in an accident.
"It's better than nothing, but not by much," said David Champion , director of automobile testing for Consumer Reports . He thinks the front test should be redesigned to show structural damage as well as the effectiveness of restraint systems. The side test, he said, doesn't reflect the aggressiveness of accidents between small cars and light trucks.
For example, many models easily pass NHTSA's frontal test, which involves crashing a vehicle into a rigid barrier at 35 miles per hour. Almost 95 percent of 2005 models passed that test with at least four stars for the driver seating position, which means the chance of injury is 20 percent or less.
"We have had grade inflation," Ditlow said. "NHTSA should make the tests more stringent to separate the winners from the losers."
One thing is sure: Consumers want the information to be clear and comprehensible.
They want stars. Not half-stars, shaded stars or hollow stars. Not colored stars. Not stars with lines drawn through them.
The safety agency has been using focus groups since the 1990s to determine how to relay the information to consumers, and the preference has been for stars.
"Consumers are comfortable with star ratings," said Mark Krawczyk , a NHTSA spokesman. "The manufacturers have made it almost part of the vernacular."
Adrian K. Lund , president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety , a group formed and funded by the insurance industry to test and rate vehicles and do research, said consumers may have a hard time telling the differences among vehicles by just looking at the NHTSA ratings.
He hopes posting the NHTSA ratings won't discourage buyers from looking for additional information gleaned from the front, side and rear crash tests the institute performs and displays on its Web site. It conducts its front crashes differently: They occur at 40 miles per hour and are designed to show structural damage and "intrusion" into the car.
Safety groups want NHTSA's frontal test tuned up to 40 miles per hour to show more "separation" between vehicles' performance.
NHTSA officials said the agency is evaluating aspects of its testing program even though it has accomplished much of what of what it was intended to do: drive manufacturers to make safer vehicles.
Stephen R. Kratzke , the agency's associate administrator for rulemaking, said: "The stars are based on real-world risks. The challenge is to ensure we are getting all the criteria we need assessed in that risk."
Joan Claybrook , president of Public Citizen and a former NHTSA administrator, is worried that putting stars on cars will have loopholes. For example, pickup trucks aren't covered by the proposal. (The agency says the industry has agreed that new pickups will meet the new sticker standard.)
Another concern is that the statement "not rated" can be posted on the sticker if the agency has not tested a new model or an existing model has been modified. Claybrook suggests manufacturers test all their vehicles with NHTSA oversight so they won't be tempted to use minor changes as an excuse not to be rated.
Auto manufacturers said they are enthusiastic about the idea. "Consumers are now focused on safety as never before," said Eron Shosteck , spokesman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers .
Honda Motor Co. already is voluntarily displaying its crash ratings on its 2006 model window stickers.
View all comments that have been posted about this article.