Remember these are without the side impact air bags, so I'd bet that would bump it up to a 5 star ranking.
Hmmm... how are these ratings different than the ones that the NHTSA released in April (described, at the time, in this thread?
DAMMIT!!! I'm sitting here waiting patiently for my Prius and they're out there, wherever they are, smashing them up. Seriously, my wife is a stickler for safety. These results weren't out a few months back when I put in my order. I was really hoping they would eventually test the Prius and it would come back good. Now I can rest happy. And mine will have the side-impact curtains. BTW, I noticed that you can't do comparisons on this site. Thought I remembered being able to at the Insurance Institute site so I went there. The Prius isn't even listed as a Toyota car there. So how are these two tests different? The two companies/institutes? Can someone clarify for me?
How come the rollover rating is only 4-stars? I thought the Prius was really low to the ground. So how the heck can you roll this car over?
You probably already know this from the NTSA site, but just to be sure... There are two tests that determine how easy it is to roll-over a car: (1) SSF (Static Stability Factor): an at-rest laboratory measurement which determines how top-heavy a vehicle is. Rating for the Prius: 1.33 SSF normally ranges from 1.00 to 1.50. Normal cars range from 1.30 to 1.50 and higher-riding SUVs, pick-up trucks, and vans usually fall into the 1.00 to 1.30 category. (2) Dynamic Test: he dynamic maneuvering test uses a heavily loaded vehicle, to represent a five-occupant load, and a full tank of gas. Using a fishhook pattern, the vehicle simulates a high-speed collision avoidance maneuver—steering sharply in one direction, then sharply in the other direction—within about one second. Test instruments on the vehicle measure if the vehicle’s inside tires lift off the pavement during the maneuver ("inside" meaning the left wheels if turning left, and the right wheels if turning right). The vehicle is considered to have tipped up in the maneuver if both inside tires lift at least two inches off the pavement simultaneously. If the rating is No tip (as is the case with the Prius) the vehicle was not subjected to the dynamic test. Results from these vehicles are imputed (assigned) based on the testing of passenger cars with lower Static Stability Factors (SSFs) that did not tip up during the dynamic test. [Broken External Image]:http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/problems/Rollover/images/ILLUSTRATION4.jpg Even though the Prius seems to have a low center of gravity, it's still a rather high car (as is proven by the fact that is susceptible to crosswinds) and it's not a very heavy car (relatively speaking). There's no extra information on the Prius on the http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/ncap/ website though. And the car wasn't actually field tested... Also bear in mind the most of the cars get 4 stars for rollover resistance.
