What do the star ratings measure?

They come from NHTSA's New Car Assessment Program, which crash-tests vehicles and rates them from one to five stars. Separate ratings cover the frontal crash, side crash, and rollover resistance, and an overall rating combines them into a single figure.

Why does a vehicle show Not Rated?

NHTSA does not test every trim or body style, and some tests are not run for a given vehicle. Not Rated means no published star figure exists for that specific test, which is different from a poor result. The overall rating may still be available.

Is this the same as the IIHS Top Safety Pick?

No. NHTSA is the U.S. government program shown here, while the IIHS is a separate insurance-industry organisation with its own tests and Top Safety Pick award. The two programs use different crash scenarios, so a vehicle can score differently in each.

Why am I asked to choose a body style?

A single make and model often covers several body styles that crash differently, such as a sedan versus a wagon. When NHTSA has rated more than one variant, the tool lists them so you can read the ratings for the exact configuration you care about.

Is the lookup free and keyless?

Yes. It uses the public NHTSA SafetyRatings API, which has open CORS and needs no key. The request is made directly from your browser to the government service in two steps: find the variant, then fetch its ratings.

NHTSA Safety Ratings Lookup

NHTSA’s 5-Star Safety Ratings are the U.S. government’s standardised measure of how a vehicle protects occupants in a crash. This tool pulls those ratings for any rated model year, make, and model, and shows the frontal, side, rollover, and overall scores as clear star widgets.

How it works

The NHTSA SafetyRatings API is hierarchical, so the lookup runs in two keyless steps:

1. /SafetyRatings/modelyear/<y>/make/<m>/model/<mod>  -> rated variants + VehicleId
2. /SafetyRatings/VehicleId/<id>  -> overall, frontal, side, rollover star ratings

When a vehicle has more than one tested body style, the tool lists them so you can pick the exact one. Each returned rating is a value from one to five stars, or Not Rated where NHTSA has not published a figure for that test.

Notes and tips

The stars come from the New Car Assessment Program crash tests, which do not cover every trim — a Not Rated line means no published figure for that test, not a failure. NHTSA ratings are distinct from the insurance-industry IIHS Top Safety Pick, which uses different crash scenarios, so it is worth checking both before a purchase. Use the exact manufacturer and base model names for the most reliable match, and follow the NHTSA.gov link for the full crash-test detail.