If you're like many of our Newport, TN customers here at Stinnett Chevrolet Buick, you might have wondered about those vehicle safety ratings. They can be confusing and hard to interpret. What do they mean and who issues them? There are two primary organizations that issue these ratings. Here's what you need to know about them.
The IIHS is the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety puts vehicles through a series of tests to measure overall crash protection, as well as the ability to mitigate and prevent accidents. They use a five-star rating system to grade each vehicle. Five stars is best.
The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) gives scores of good, acceptable, marginal, or poor. They arrive at these ratings by conducting rollover tests as well as those measuring front and side-impact. These assessments are meant to inform buyers about the vehicles' quality and performance.