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NHTSA 5-Star Safety Ratings

Car Safety Ratings by Year, Make & Model

NHTSA crash-test results for 62model years — every test, every rated version, and what each rating leaves out. Then check the one car you’re buying.

Check a specific car’s crash history

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NHTSA
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62
model years rated
NMVTIS
title records
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What a safety rating can and cannot tell you

NHTSA’s New Car Assessment Program crashes new vehicles into barriers and poles, measures what would happen to the people inside, and publishes the result as one to five stars. It is the only public, government crash-test rating in the United States.

NHTSA announced new NCAP crash tests and rating criteria in July 2008, including a new overall rating that combines the frontal, side and rollover results. It then postponed the change by a year: the new criteria apply to vehicles tested beginning with model year 2011, not 2010 as first announced.

What a rating cannot tell you is anything about one used car. It describes the vehicle as it left the factory. A car that has since been in a serious crash, rebuilt, or had its airbags replaced is not the car NHTSA tested — and that history is in the title record, not the rating.

Browse by make

Model years NHTSA crash-tested. Years it did not test are left out rather than shown empty.

Always check the VIN before you buy

The free preview shows title brands, theft status and open recalls in seconds, and flags whether accident and odometer records exist. The full history is $14.99 — one-time, no subscription.

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Safety Ratings FAQ

How NHTSA’s crash-test ratings work, and where they stop.

What do NHTSA safety ratings measure?+

NHTSA's New Car Assessment Program crash-tests new vehicles and rates them from one to five stars in a frontal crash, a side barrier crash, a side pole crash and for rollover resistance. Each rating applies to one model year and one body style or drivetrain.

Why is a model year missing, or marked not rated?+

NHTSA does not test every vehicle every year. A model year it did not crash-test has no rating at all — which is not the same as a low rating. Those vehicles are left out of this index rather than shown as a page of empty results.

Can I compare ratings from before 2011 with newer ones?+

Not like for like. NHTSA changed its crash tests and rating criteria starting with model year 2011 and added an overall score, so a star earned before then came from different tests.

Does a five-star rating mean a used car is safe?+

A rating describes the vehicle as it was built. A used car that has been in a serious crash, rebuilt from a salvage title or had its airbags replaced is no longer the vehicle NHTSA tested. A VIN check reads those records from NMVTIS.

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A rating covers the model. A VIN covers the car.

Salvage titles, reported accidents and odometer records follow the VIN, not the model year.

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