A little background before we get to the news: Subaru is the name of a cluster of some 250 bluish stars in the Taurus constellation. Only six of its stars are visible to the naked eye. Here in the West, the cluster is better-known as Pleiades, but in Japan, it's alternately called Subaru ("to govern" or "gather together") or Mutsuraboshi, which means "Six Stars." And if you've ever looked closely at a Subaru badge, that's exactly what you see, six stars. But take a look at the window sticker on the new 2008 Forester and you'll see only five stars.
Don't let that seem like a letdown, however, for as you probably know, a five-star rating is the highest the NHTSA awards, and it also happens to be the vehicle's most recent score in those NHTSA crash tests. Subaru of America announced the rating today, along with the press release you'll find after the jump. Read it and you'll discover that the '08 Forester earned five star ratings for both front- and side-impact crash tests, for both the driver and passenger. These ratings were for the NHTSA's New Car Assessment Program (NCAP), which uses a 10% higher impact speed than the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards -- 38.5 versus 35 mph. Kudos to Mutsuraboshi Subaru. Keep up the good work, and maybe they'll have to change the metric for you.
Don't let that seem like a letdown, however, for as you probably know, a five-star rating is the highest the NHTSA awards, and it also happens to be the vehicle's most recent score in those NHTSA crash tests. Subaru of America announced the rating today, along with the press release you'll find after the jump. Read it and you'll discover that the '08 Forester earned five star ratings for both front- and side-impact crash tests, for both the driver and passenger. These ratings were for the NHTSA's New Car Assessment Program (NCAP), which uses a 10% higher impact speed than the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards -- 38.5 versus 35 mph. Kudos to Mutsuraboshi Subaru. Keep up the good work, and maybe they'll have to change the metric for you.
Source: autoblog.com
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