More protection on the road.(Safety features & scores)(Buyers Guide)

It's easier for consumers to find vehicles with advanced safety features than it was five years ago. Overall, today's cars, SUVs, minivans, wagons, and pickups offer more standard safety features, and more models offer a wider variety of optional safety features.

For instance, for the 2000 Annual Auto Issue, we found only about 14 percent of vehicles were available with electronic stability control (ESC), which is effective in reducing single-vehicle-crash fatalities (see Up Front, page 8). On the following pages, you'll find that nearly 60 percent of models can now be equipped with ESC.

In the next few years, more vehicles will come with ESC as standard equipment as manufacturers respond to the rollover tests initiated last year by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Today 33 percent of models list head-protection side air bags as standard equipment, and another 29 percent offer them as an option. By contrast, in 2000 only 5 percent of models came equipped with those bags as standard equipment and none offered them as an option. One of the best ways manufacturers can protect vehicle occupants in a side impact is to provide side-impact air bags.

GUIDE TO THE CHART

We developed the safety comparison chart on these pages to make it easier for you to compare the safety features and crash-test scores of all the available models within each category. Here is a guide to each column in the chart:

Traction/stability and ABS identify the vehicles with these features. Traction control helps maintain traction in slippery conditions. Stability control helps prevent skidding sideways. ABS ensures directional stability under hard braking.