This past January, The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration introduced its first attempt to establish a rollover rating for all passenger vehicles. Although the rating is a step in the right direction, we consider it overly simplistic. In the main, cars mostly do well in the rating and light trucks mostly do not. That conforms to real life. Most 2001 SUVs that have been rated get two or three stars out of a possible five.
Most cars get four stars.
That's OK for differentiating between SUVs and cars, but not as helpful if you're trying to decide among, say, several SUVs. What we hope will be a better guide is in the works. The agency has until November 2002 to devise and begin conducting actual on-road handling tests to gauge and score rollover propensity. Copyright 2001 Consumers Union of U.S., Inc.