Last night I was watching dateline NBC. They did a story on the U.S. government testing of side impact crashes from a 3500 pound vehicle moving at 35 mph. The test was way beyond the goverments requirements, but it gave interesting data. I should have wrote down the cars which got 5 stars but it was late at night and I was exhausted from the rat race.

Anyways, the ratings were as follows:

5 stars means a 1 in 20 chance of serious injury from a side impact collision.

4 stars = 1 in 15

3 stars = 1 in 10

2 stars = 1 in 5 (I'm not sure about this one)

Cars get one star for showing up for the test.

The 5 star was pretty tough. I think only three cars got it. One was

the big Lexus. I think the Ford Crown Victoria was also in this category. But the volvo S70 got 4 stars. They also pointed out that the S70 was considered a "mid-size" car, unlike the Lexus and the Crown Victoria which were "large" cars. No mid size cars got 5 stars.

All the manufacturers wrote letters of protest to the testing facility including volvo. The points made by volvo were the most salient. They said that safety is a result of a great number of factors. It is far too complex to be measured by a single crash test. If nothing else, this indicates a more than superficial knowledge of automobile safety on the part of volvo.

Having seen the results and hearing volvos response, I am quite confident that the volvo is equal to, if not the best car manufacturer for passenger safety.

Just my .02

-greg

'98 V70 T5