Of 2,951 vehicles rated for roof strength, 2,480 score Good and 21 score Poor.
| Roof strength rating | Vehicles |
|---|---|
| Good | 2,480 |
| Acceptable | 298 |
| Marginal | 152 |
| Poor | 21 |
Under one per cent fail. It is the most consistently passed evaluation in the entire set, and it did not used to be.
What the test measures
A metal plate is pressed into the roof above the driver's door at an angle, and the force required to crush it five inches is measured against the vehicle's weight.
The threshold for Good is four times the kerb weight. That number matters because a rolling vehicle can load its roof with several times its own mass, and a roof that collapses reduces the survival space regardless of belts or airbags.
The vehicles that failed are, unsurprisingly, tall and heavy. Weight is in the denominator, so a heavy SUV has to be proportionally stronger than a light saloon to achieve the same rating.
Why it stopped being a problem
The federal standard for roof crush was raised, and the test became a published rating rather than an internal one. Both happened within a few years.
The response was the one that repeats throughout these ratings: manufacturers engineered to the measurement, quickly, once it was visible. Head restraints went from 88% failing to zero the same way, and small overlap failures fell from 59% to 2%.
Reinforcing a B-pillar is also structural work done at platform level, which means it arrives for an entire model range at once rather than trim by trim.
Where it still matters
On older vehicles, and specifically on older tall ones. A used SUV from before the standard changed carries a roof designed against a weaker requirement, and its rating — if it has one — is the thing to check rather than the badge.
It is also worth pairing with the rollover star rating, which measures the likelihood of the event rather than survivability during it. Cars with five stars in every crash test routinely score three for rollover, and the two numbers answer different questions.
Frequently asked questions
What does the roof strength test measure?
A plate is pressed into the roof above the driver's door until it crushes five inches, and the force required is compared with the vehicle's kerb weight. A Good rating requires withstanding four times the vehicle's own weight.
Do modern cars fail it?
Almost never. Of 2,951 rated vehicles, 2,480 score Good and only 21 score Poor — under one per cent. The federal standard was raised and the rating published at roughly the same time, and manufacturers engineered to it within a few model cycles.
Is roof strength the same as a rollover rating?
No. Roof strength measures survivability if a rollover happens; the rollover star rating estimates how likely one is. Vehicles with five stars across crash tests frequently score three for rollover, because the two measure different things.
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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