Understanding vehicle safety is paramount for every car owner. Safety ratings, often presented as star ratings, are designed to help consumers assess how well a vehicle protects its occupants in a crash. These ratings, like those you might see in Car and Driver reviews when researching a Volkswagen Tiguan, are calculated based on a vehicle’s performance in various crash tests, including frontal and side impacts, as well as rollover resistance.
The Overall Vehicle Score synthesizes these individual crash test ratings into a single, easy-to-understand metric. This score isn’t just an average; it’s a weighted calculation that reflects the real-world frequency and severity of different types of crashes. The system compares a vehicle’s injury risk to the average risk across all vehicles on the road. Here’s how the star ratings break down:
- ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐: Significantly lower injury risk than average.
- ⭐⭐⭐⭐: Lower to average injury risk.
- ⭐⭐⭐: Average to higher injury risk.
- ⭐⭐: Higher injury risk.
- ⭐: Significantly higher injury risk.
However, it’s crucial to understand the limitations of comparing these Overall Vehicle Scores. Direct comparisons are only valid between vehicles within the same vehicle class and with similar weights. Specifically, you can only compare vehicles that are within 250 pounds of each other.
For example, it would be inappropriate to compare the safety rating of a 4,500-pound SUV to a 3,000-pound sedan. These vehicles are in different classes and exceed the weight difference threshold. Similarly, comparing a 3,600-pound pickup truck to a 3,400-pound minivan is also invalid because, despite meeting the weight criteria, they belong to different vehicle classes. In contrast, it is perfectly valid to compare the safety ratings of a 3,400-pound passenger car with another passenger car weighing 3,650 pounds, as they are in the same class and within the acceptable weight range.
Therefore, when considering safety ratings for vehicles like the Volkswagen Tiguan, always compare it to others in its class and weight category to get a meaningful assessment of its safety performance relative to its peers.
