The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has released new information on vehicle rollover risk for some models. Ford’s Explorer was given an overall rating of “three” on the five-star system, which means that the SUV has a rollover risk about the same as other vehicles in its class.
During testing, Explorer, along with several other SUV models tested, tipped up on two wheels. Most of the SUVs tested this time — including Mercury Mountaineer, Ford Explorer Sport Trac, Chevrolet Tahoe, and GMC Yukon — got three stars, indicating rollover risk is between 20 and 30 percent.
Of the 30-plus cars for which NHTSA provided rollover ratings, Mazda’s RX-8 was the only vehicle to get a five-star rating, indicating the rollover risk in a single-vehicle crash is less than 10 percent.
Most of the passenger cars in the test received a four-star rating, which relates to a 10- to 20-percent risk, because of their lower centers of gravity.
