WASHINGTON – The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced the MY-2012 passenger vehicles it will test as part of its 5-star safety ratings program. NHTSA said its program will provide safety information on approximately 81 percent of model year 2012 passenger vehicles sold in the U.S., while rollover tests will provide information on 92 percent of the 2012 fleet.

NHTSA stated it will rate 74 vehicles for the 2012 model-year, including 42 passenger cars, 22 sport utility vehicles, two vans, and eight pickup trucks. The organization said it will conduct testing under its enhanced program, which NHTSA overhauled last year to include tougher crash tests and provide a single overall safety score for each vehicle.

In addition to overall safety ratings, NHTSA’s revamped testing program provides on the most effective “crash avoidance” technologies available in new model year vehicles.

NHTSA said it also started providing recommendations on effective crash-avoidance technologies. For the 2012 model year, NHTSA has identified 68 models with either lane departure warning (LDW), forward collision warning (FCW), or both. Of these equipped vehicles, 12 have LDW, 18 vehicles have FCW, and 38 vehicles have both. Since NHTSA began identifying vehicles equipped with these crash avoidance technologies in 2011, availability of these features has risen, up from the 45 vehicles offering these technologies as optional equipment last model year.

The list of vehicles to be tested is shown below: 

Passenger Cars 

 Trucks

SUVs

Minivans

Passenger Cars With Lane Departure Warning (LDW) or Forward Collision Warning (FCW)

 SUVs With LDW or FCW