- The Ford F-150 and Toyota Tundra have earned the top rating in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's first roof strength tests of large pickups.
- The Chevrolet Silverado, GMC Sierra and Dodge Ram are rated marginal.
- The Nissan Titan is in the middle of the pack with an acceptable rating for rollover protection.
ARLINGTON, Virginia — The Ford F-150 and Toyota Tundra have earned the top rating in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's first roof strength tests of large pickups. The Chevrolet Silverado, GMC Sierra and Dodge Ram are rated marginal.
The Nissan Titan is in the middle of the pack, with an acceptable rating for rollover protection.
The good rating for the F-150 applies to pickups built after February 2011 because Ford made changes to the roof structure of the truck. The ratings provided by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety only apply to crew-cab versions of the tested pickups.
Toughening vehicle roofs is aimed at helping people survive rollover crashes, which account for more than 10,000 deaths annually, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. New federal rules will regulate the roof strength of many SUVs and pickup trucks by extending coverage to vehicles with gross weight ratings up to 10,000 pounds. In the past, more lenient rules excluded about 44 percent of SUVs and trucks.
The tougher federal roof-strength rules will be phased in, beginning with 2013 model vehicles, and by the 2017 model year, 100 percent of each manufacturer's fleet must comply. The ruling is controversial, triggering much debate about the association between roof crush in rollovers and serious head and neck injuries.
The IIHS said that to measure roof strength, a metal plate is pushed against one corner of a vehicle's roof at a constant speed. The maximum force sustained by the roof before 5 inches of crush is compared to the vehicle's weight to find the strength-to-weight ratio. "This is a good assessment of vehicle structural protection in rollover crashes," said the IIHS in a statement on Thursday.
Curiously, all of the aforementioned pickups performed in a similar manner in the federal government's rollover tests of 2011 models. The 2011 Ford F-150, 2011 Toyota Tundra, 2011 Nissan Titan, 2011 Chevrolet Silverado, and 2011 Dodge Ram all earned three or four out of five stars in rollover tests, depending on the model. The 2011 GMC Sierra earned four stars in rollover tests.
The rollover tests give consumers a good idea of how the vehicle's roof will perform in a crash.
Inside Line says: In the past, little attention was paid to the roof strength of pickup trucks — but all of that is changing, which should help buyers make more intelligent purchases.
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openeyes1 says:
08:53 AM, 05/16/2011
@dgmail; Not surprised at the poor build quality of US Tundra's, I guess you get that when you build in the state of Texa*s. W wanted a Toyota plant in his home state and got one in San Antonio to build the fuel thirsty Tundra. If you're a wealthy state like Texa*s, and spend so little on education (bottom of the barrel), you end up with quite a few poorly educated, and unreliable workers.
tdiluv says:
04:36 AM, 05/16/2011
Not many people roll them over anyway. It would be good to know however what "Professional Grade" means by GMC.
ambee514 says:
08:51 PM, 05/15/2011
the Ferd F-teenthousand. the US Government rates it as 8 tanks... words
http://youtu.be/d4bJsIogkGk
dgmail says:
03:33 AM, 05/14/2011
The Toyota might of gotten lucky on this one. But the Tundra was/is still recalled for broken camshafts, warped rotors, bent rods, broken u-joints, and generally shoddy assembly.
I thought nissan stopped making pickups? The Titan mess should of sunk the company. They must be losing billions on it. Ultimate failure.
Typical Leinert fashion to single out the Nissan in a single paragraph to promote it.
Why doesnt Edmunds just fire the Leinerts? They are so import bias in everything they write.
gris1969 says:
04:56 PM, 05/13/2011
They still make the Titan? I have not seen one on the road for so long I forgot about them...not a good thing for Nissan. I have bought Ford for the past 10 years and I'll buy a Ford truck if anything. My friend runs Ford truck for his business and beats the living crap out of them. One is over 200,000 miles with no major repairs and still going strong the other is in the low 100k mark. I own 2 Ford cars with no problems what so ever. My Fusion has never seen the dealer or a repair shop for the past 70,000 miles. No I do not work for the auto industry in any way. I have owned Chrysler, AMC (Not by choice, college beater), Toyota and Ford and I have liked the Ford cars the best
mardani977 says:
04:26 PM, 05/13/2011
I'm proud of the Titan, the oldest fullsize pick-up on the road and still did better than the newer Dodge and GM models. It shows what a good job Nissan did on the initial design, lets hope they don't fall back on the second generation. To think Nissan got their fullsize pickup right the from the start, Toyota took two different models and the second generation of the second model to finally make a real fullsize, and they think GM takes forever to learn its lesson.
bodyblue says:
11:06 AM, 05/13/2011
Good for Ford and Toyota not so good for GM and MOPAR. I am sure this new 'roof failure option" will be spun as something good for GM trucks.