Most vehicles rate fair in new rollover tests

WASHINGTON – Only one of the 33 cars, sport utility vehicles and pickups tested by the government earned the highest safety rating in measuring how easily they roll over.

The Mazda RX-8 sports car was the only vehicle to earn five stars from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which means the risk is less than 10 percent that the car will roll over in a single-car crash.

Ten SUVs earned three stars, putting their risk of rollover between 20 percent and 30 percent. Those were the Chevrolet Tahoe 4×4 and 4×2, the Dodge Durango 4×2, the Ford Explorer 4×4 and 4×2, the Ford Explorer Sport Trac 4×4, the GMC Yukon 4×4 and 4×2 and the Mercury Mountaineer 4×4 and 4×2.

The other vehicles, mostly passenger cars, earned four stars, putting their rollover risk between 10 percent and 20 percent. No vehicle earned fewer than three stars.