Understanding NHTSA Crash Test Record Check

Posted by Admin at 2 August 2016, at 12 : 25 PM

Understanding NHTSA Crash Test Record Check

Are you planning to buy a used car? Have you had an NHTSA crash test done? Well, NHTSA crash test record check is a must for every buyer of a used car. Lets find out more about it here in this article.

NHTSA stands for National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. This organization is a well-known institution, which maintains the records of all the information and data about the vehicles. Apart from this organization, there are other such institutions as well which provide the services of crash tests after or before buying a particular vehicle.

Crash tests are very critical as the used car which you intend to buy may not be so strong and resistant to crashes or accidents compared with a new car. So while buying a used car, ask dealer to give you the report of the NHTSA records of the crash tests. This is a way to know the ability and resistant power of your used car.

The crash test of the NHTSA shows the crash ability from every angle of the car. It can be from the drivers angle or passengers angle or any other such aspect. So potential buyers should be careful and alert for asking for this kind of crash test record of the NHTSA.

Take an example of the crash report of the NHTSA, which reads as follows:

NHTSA frontal crash driver: good NHTSA frontal crash passenger: good NHTSA side crash front occupant: good NHTSA side crash rear occupant: excellent NHTSA rollover resistance: acceptable

So the above-mentioned report is an example of one such crash report of the national highway traffic safety administration. So in this way, the buyer gets a clear picture about the crash resistant ability of the car.

In 1994, the NHTSA changed the way they rate frontal crash test performances of the cars and trucks when they run into a fixed barrier at 35 mph. The NHTSA makes the data more user friendly for the interested consumers by converting to a five star rating system.

The rating is as follows:

1 star means a 46% or better chance of life threatening injury
2 star means 36% chance of life threatening injury
3 star means 21 -35% chance of life threatening injury
4 star means 11-20 % chance of life threatening injury
5 star means 10 % or less chance of life threatening injury

With this rating system of the NHTSA, a person would be able to know about the capacity of their used car. Therefore, NHTSA crash test record check is must while buying a used car.

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