I watched the rollover piece last night on MSNBC, and found it very interesting. They talked about two lists of rollover probability, one based on a mathematical formula based on the design of the vehicle, and one based on historic accident rates. Neither are public knowledge, and the lobbiests for the auto manufactures are working to keep this data hidden.

Based on the reference information on this table, this is data based on the mathematical formula. And this is not likely based on reality, which was acknowledged on the MSNBC program.

Look at the data. I recently bought a new Corvette, which is the best handling stock automobile for sale in the US, able to create lateral g force in excess of 1g. It also has very advance traction and yaw control. I've never felt more in control of an automobile. Yet the Vette is beat out in this study by a Crown Vic with soft suspension. Why? Maybe it's because the Vette is capable of 175 mph, and the Crown Vic is probably limited to 90 mph. Yet I believe that if applied to the exact same scenario, the Vette would be less likely to roll.

Volvos of late have become increasingly performance oriented. Without knowing the specific algorithm, I would guess that they took performance orientation into account, and penalized those cars because they're more likely to be driven closer to the edge.

I don't think Volvos are very likely to roll at all, and are less likely to roll than many other vehicles, including John O's Regal!

(BTW, I have a Suburban too, and was glad to see that it rated higher than other SUVs)

....the "Transportation Analysis Institute". I appreciate that the Volvo scores "worse" than the Cadillac.

The Volvo also supposedly scores "better" than the Porsche Boxster and the BMW Z3, both cars with VERY low centers of gravity, so the entire hypothesis that this index actually contains meaningful information is highly suspect.

When I took the Skip Barber high performance driving course a couple of years ago, a large part of the course was devoted to skid control. The vehicles they used for this were Dodge pickup trucks with bald rear tires. All that would ever happen is that we'd spin out and slide to a halt in the far reaches of the skidpad. The instructors unequivocally stated that NO ONE at any one of their courses -which are given all over the country - had EVER managed to roll one of the pickups. They further unequivocally stated that, no hatter WHAT you do to the steering wheel, it is IMPOSSIBLE to roll any car or truck made today unless you do something like hit a curb, Jersey barrier, or another vehicle. Skid, yes, but not roll over. Recall also that most of the news photos of the inverted Explorers seem to show that they've left the pavement.

I saw the "Dateline" piece on rollovers on MSNBC last night. They supplied a handy rollover calculator (avaliable below) which seems to show that trucks will roll over more easily than cars (DUH!).

Seems NHTSA wants to require a rollover rating system, one to five stars, presumably to be put on the window sticker with the EPA fuel economy numbers.

-Uncle Olaf

'98 V70T5M 53k mi., IPD stabilizer bars, Volvo strut tower brace and skidplate, Valentine One, Dunlop SP8000s

The data is based on predictions (not actual recorded accidents).

I assume they use the vehicle center of gravity, weight, etc.

In fact, this might just be a list sorted by center of gravity

(remove the sunroof and I wonder what happens to the placement

in this list). Heck, maybe Volvo has more material in the roof

to protect in a roll and that moves the center of gravity up.

I believe Volvo investigates real world accidents and Volvo

engineers use that data for automobile design (as well as calculated

data, I'm sure).

I think if the numbers are posted they should post how they are

calculated and the range of accuracy of the predictions (like a

poll does, +/- 4%, etc.).

I'm also not sure what it means to say an Explorer has a 22% chance

of rolling. Does this mean that 1 in 5 accidents with an Explorer

result in the thing rolling? Or if you run off the road into a

ditch you have a 22% chance of rolling?

Thanks for the URL.

Quick look shows that chance of rollover for a car is more or less directly proportional to weight. Presumably most cars have pretty similar profiles.

Neal

The teenage son of a friend of mine rolled over, at high speed a 1993 245 on a dirt road, and ended with one cut in his arm, which was self inflicted while trying to get out of the wagon. Insurance totaled the wagon but the kid is alive.

In my almost 30 yrs of driving, I've not once ever come close to rolling a car over so it's not anything I'd even consider really.

Those who I know have done it were wasted on something (not sober).