Any brand can point at one five-star model. The more useful question is what a brand averages across everything it sells — because that's what you're buying into when you choose the badge before the model.
| Brand | Average overall rating | Models rated |
|---|---|---|
| Volvo | 5.00 | 6 |
| BMW | 5.00 | 11 |
| Cadillac | 5.00 | 11 |
| Tesla | 5.00 | 5 |
| Mitsubishi | 4.29 | 7 |
| Dodge | 4.25 | 8 |
| Jeep | 4.09 | 11 |
A flat 5.00 is harder than it looks
Volvo, BMW, Cadillac and Tesla don't average close to five — they average exactly five, meaning every rated model in the line took top marks. Across eleven models, as BMW and Cadillac both manage, that's a consistent engineering standard rather than one good result.
Given that 81% of all rated models get five stars, a perfect brand average is less remarkable than it sounds. What's genuinely notable is the other end.
Jeep at 4.09 across eleven models
To average 4.09 with eleven models rated, most of the range has to be scoring four rather than five. In a market where four out of five cars get top marks, that's a brand consistently sitting below the pack.
The reason is structural, and it's the same reason people buy Jeeps.
A tall, narrow vehicle with high ground clearance and a short wheelbase is exactly what you want off-road, and exactly the shape that scores badly on rollover resistance. The overall rating combines frontal impact, side impact and rollover — a vehicle can do well in both crash tests and still lose a star to the third component. Dodge at 4.25 and Mitsubishi at 4.29 sit alongside for related reasons.
That trade-off is real engineering, not carelessness. But it's a trade-off, and the star average is where it becomes visible.
What to do with this
Don't buy a brand, buy a model. A 4.09 average doesn't mean every Jeep is a four-star vehicle — some are five. The average tells you the brand's centre of gravity, not the score of the car you're looking at. Look up the specific model and year.
The rollover component behaves differently from the others. It's a physics question about height and track width rather than a structural one, and it's improved far less over time than crash performance has.
Check the trim and the equipment. Safety hardware varies within a model line, and the tested configuration may not be the one on the forecourt.
Check the individual vehicle. A five-star model with an unrepaired airbag campaign isn't a five-star car. That distinction never appears in any rating and shows up immediately in a VIN check. We covered how many models cluster at the top in what a five-star rating really means, and where those scores stopped improving in crash scores improved everywhere except rollovers.
Frequently asked questions
Which car brand has the best safety ratings?
Volvo, BMW, Cadillac and Tesla all average exactly 5.00 across every rated model in their lineups. BMW and Cadillac do it across eleven models each, which makes it a consistent standard rather than a single good result.
Why does Jeep score lower on safety ratings?
At 4.09 across eleven models, Jeep sits below the pack because of rollover resistance. Tall, narrow vehicles with high ground clearance and short wheelbases perform well off-road and poorly in rollover testing, and that component is part of the overall score.
Does a low brand average mean every model is unsafe?
No. The average describes the brand's centre of gravity, not any specific vehicle — some Jeep models score five stars. Always look up the individual model and year rather than judging by badge.
Is rollover rating improving over time?
Much less than crash performance. Rollover resistance is largely a function of vehicle height and track width rather than structural engineering, so it hasn't followed the same improvement curve as frontal and side impact scores.
Denis Kataev is a serial solopreneur and the founder of ForCar. With 15+ years in software engineering and 10 years in SEO, he builds data-driven products end to end — backed by a sharp eye for design. At ForCar he mines proprietary vehicle datasets, turning raw numbers into buying advice you can actually trust.
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