comment about model year 2011 ratings:

Commencing with model year 2011 vehicles NHTSA will implement a new rating system that combines frontal impact, side impact and rollover risks, into a single rating value they call “score”.  This change represents a significant advancement towards helping identify the relative overall safety of vehicles and is similar to the risk index “SCORE” (Statistical Combination Of Risk Elements) developed for this website. One major difference is that NHTSA’s score does not include the effect of a vehicle’s weight. Instead, NHTSA has chosen to continue their practice of grouping vehicles into weight categories, with the cautionary note that you should not compare frontal ratings between vehicles more than 250 lbs. apart. Also, unlike the risk index SCORE, NHTSA’s score does not include any of the test results published by the Insurance Institute (IIHS).

The risk index SCOREs presented on this website for model year 2011 vehicles will utilize IIHS’s ratings, and vehicle weight and when NHTSA releases their new ratings analysis those results will be incorporated.