Vehicle Safety

Vehicle safety is very important to us at Ford. In fact, it's one of four principles that inform and guide our every design and engineering effort.1 We consider building safe vehicles to be part of the "price of admission" to the automotive industry, and we continually work to raise the bar on safety.

In 2009, our efforts were once again rewarded. Based on the independent measures listed below, Ford remains an industry leader in motor vehicle safety.

• Ford holds the most Top Safety Picks (awarded by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, or IIHS) of any vehicle manufacturer. Nineteen Ford vehicles earned this honor in 2009, including the Ford Taurus, Taurus X, Fusion, Focus, Edge, Flex, Escape and F-150; the Lincoln MKS, MKZ, MKT and MKX; the Mercury Sable, Milan and Mariner; and the Volvo S80, C30, C70 and XC90. To earn a Top Safety Pick, a vehicle must receive a rating of "good" in offset frontal impact, side impact and rear impact evaluations, and offer electronic stability control. For 2010, vehicles will also be expected to earn a "good" rating in roof strength tests.
• For the 2010 model year, 23 Ford vehicles received five-star ratings for both frontal impact and side impact from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in its U.S. New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) ratings, compared with 24 for the 2009 model year.
• The 2010 Ford Taurus is one of the safest-rated large sedans sold in America, with five-star NCAP crash ratings for frontal and side impact and "good" IIHS ratings in offset frontal impact, side impact, roof strength and rear impact evaluations.
• The 2010 Ford F-150 is America's safest full-size pickup. It's the only full-size pickup to earn five-star crash test ratings in all categories from NHTSA.
• The 2010 model year Mustang Convertible earned five-star ratings in all categories of NHTSA NCAP.
• For the 2010 model year, the IIHS awarded 30 Ford vehicles with "good" ratings for frontal offset performance and 19 Ford vehicles with "good" ratings for side impact performance.
• In Ford's most recent EuroNCAP assessments, the Ford Kuga and Ford Fiesta achieved Ford's first three-star ratings for pedestrian protection. These cars also joined the Focus, Mondeo, S-MAX and Galaxy in having best-in-class, five-star adult protection and four-star child protection ratings.
• The Ford Mondeo was the second Ford car (after the Focus) to be awarded a five-star rating in the Chinese NCAP.
• The Ford Falcon was the first Australian-built car to be awarded five stars in the Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP).

In addition, Volvo's City Safety system received awards in 2009 from the following automotive publications: Autohoje (Portugal); FuturAuto (Belgium); and Auto Motor und Sport, Paul Pietsch Award (Germany).

This section outlines our vehicle safety performance over the past year. It includes a discussion of current vehicle safety opportunities and challenges globally, and how we manage vehicle safety within the Company. It also focuses on technologies we've developed, programs we support and research we are undertaking to promote safer driving, how we manufacture ever-safer vehicles and how we promote a safer driving environment. The section then looks at the various collaborative efforts we are undertaking with other organizations related to vehicle safety. Finally, a case study looks in-depth at the issue of driver distraction.

For a discussion of Ford's positions on U.S. public policy issues relating to vehicle safety, please see the Governance section.