Can someone explain these crash test reviews?

[ProudMomof5]

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its for the '98 expedition... I just got curious about what it all means.
How safe is this vehicle? Is it normal to not test the 3rd row for side impact? considering we use the 3rd row full time... I am a little concerned.



http://www.motortrend.com/cars/1998/...dition/safety/

[TechnoGranola]

It's not just the 3rd row that wasn't tested for side impact, neither was the 1st or 2nd row. I don't believe the NHTSA did any side impact testing on SUV's in 1998. If you take a look at the NHTSA ratings for 1998 SUV's, you can see that none of them had any side impact testing done http://www.safercar.gov/Index2.cfm?m...iew+1998++SUVs

[ProudMomof5]

hmmm... very true. thanks..
So what about all the other stuff? It just seems that not a whole lot was done to test this vehicle.. of course I don't know how much is normally done to test a vehicle.

[TechnoGranola]

From what I can see, in 1998, side impact testing was only done on passenger cars. Not on vans, SUVs or trucks. Also, you won't see a rollover rating as they started doing that for for 2001 model years (but not every vehicle). It doesn't seem that the Expedition had any less testing done than other vehicles, I think it's just that there was less testing done in general in '98.

Also, from what I can tell, it doesn't seem as if the IIHS has tested any large SUVs (there's no Expedition, Tahoe, Navigator, and they don't list large SUVs as a class of vehicle with tests), only small and midsize. Not sure why.

[TechnoGranola]

I see this in their FAQ

Does NHTSA have crash data on vehicles made before 1990?
NHTSA began frontal crash ratings in 1979, so there is crash information available on vehicles starting in that year. Information prior to 1990 is archived, and is not listed on the web. This data is available to consumers. Send an e-mail to crash.test@nhtsa.dot.gov with the year, make, and model of the vehicle to obtain the crash information.

They do seem to list the '89 Expedition on the web, so not sure if they have any additional data, but it couldn't hurt to email them and ask. The won't have rollover ratings though, as I said, that wasn't started until '01.

[ProudMomof5]

Okay.. thanks for your help.

[southpawboston]

IIHS tested the F150 pickup (1997-2003 generation), which the expedition is based on.

http://www.iihs.org/ratings/rating.aspx?id=7

not sure how much this applies to the expedition.

[TechnoGranola]

One other thing, they did test the rollover rating of the Expedition in '01 and '02, and it got 2 stars It also got a 5 star frontal rating that year, and in '98 it was 4 star, so I am thinking that there were some changes from '98. They didn't test rollover again until '06 when the ratings were starting to get better, so must have been more changes then.

I guess my point is, the older generation Expeditions seem to have a high rollover rate.

[ProudMomof5]

Originally Posted by technogranola

I guess my point is, the older generation Expeditions seem to have a high rollover rating.

So, that is a good thing then, right?

Man, the more I look into all this stuff the more freaked out I get!

[TechnoGranola]

Originally Posted by ProudMomof5

So, that is a good thing then, right?

Man, the more I look into all this stuff the more freaked out I get!

I guess what I meant to say was high rollover RATE (not rating!). So, no, it's not exactly good. A 2 star rollover rating means it has a higher chance of rollover in an accident. 5 stars is the best, and an SUV can't get higher than 4 due to the higher centre of gravity than a car, so they will always have a higher chance of rollover than a car.