Who is the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety?
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety or IIHS is an organization that car insurance companies fund and use to test the safety of vehicles. They are non for profit and claim that the results of their tests help people choose safer cars and therefore help reduce fatalities in crashes. The IIHS also does crash tests on motorcycles and infant and child restraint seats.
What are their Rating Standards?
The IIHS has a grading scale that uses the letters G, A, M, and P to grade the safety of the vehicles they test in their crash tests. G is the best and stands for Good, A is Acceptable, M represents Marginal, and P is the worst and stands for Poor. The grades that the IIHS give vehicles are very powerful and many car companies use these grades to promote their products, when they have a good grade of course.
What is the Difference Between the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the U.S. Government's NHTSA.
The U.S. government also does crash safety testing on new vehicles. The main difference is that the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety does offset crash tests. An offset side impact test, which is like a crash happening more on the front corner of a vehicle, is what the IIHS feels is more comparable to how most crashes happen in the real world and therefore is the most effective way to try and simulate a car crash.
Does Everyone Feel the IIHS has the Best Unbiast Results?
No, there are critics of the IIHS. Since the IIHS is paid and ran with money from insurance agencies, some feel that they present their data in ways that may be unfair to organizations that do not financially support them such as the American Motorcyclist Organization.
