Safety

How Safe is Your Car?

All vehicles sold in the United States must pass Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) including a compliance crash test which is a 30 mph frontal impact test and a 33.5 mph side impact test. However, each vehicle can differ significantly in its safety rating.

Your Task: Determine the Safety Rating of your vehicles.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration -- Check out the safety rating of your vehicles.

http://www.autosafety.org--- check out your vehicle for recalls, safety alerts, and defects here.

Document your safety rating (if available) with a printout of the "star rating" (1 star up to 4 stars) of your vehicle. Add this rating to your Matrix, and the printout to your Appendix.

Some Questions to Consider When Writing Your Conclusion:

Was there a difference in the safety rating among your chosen cars? What was it? What could account for this difference? Do you think the age of the car could be the sole reason for this difference? What else might contribute to the difference? Did the safety rating of your chosen cars cause you to reconsider your choice of vehicle? Why or why not? How important to you is the safety rating of a car when considering a car purchase? Is there a single safety feature (air bags, brakes, tires, etc.) that you would consider more important than the others? What did you learn about the Safety Index that surprised you? Did your vehicle have any unique safety issues? Were there any safety recalls on any of the components of your vehicle? If so, when, and what were they? What was modified to correct the problem? Are larger cars always "safer"?