Crash Course: New Dodge Grand Caravan Nabs Five Star Safety Rating

By Raj Rajagopalan
Supervisor, Safety Engineering

I can’t believe the time is here!

A few weeks ago, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) told us that they are going to test the 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan and Chrysler Town & Country minivans for their New Car Assessment Program (NCAP). It was our chance to prove ourselves.

We spent many months, optimizing the restraints and structure, and I have seen the NCAP test run many times, but this official test is the one that can make or break your hard work. It’s the one people turn to and trust.

This whole process began years ago with just a computer-model version of the new minivan. The team spent months creating computer models and identifying the best combination of air bag, seat belt, and vehicle structure to optimize protection in a wide variety of possible vehicle crashes. After several months of computer modeling, and thousands of virtual crashes, we built a buck – basically a test vehicle that has seats and an instrument panel — to verify the computer models with physical hardware. We continued with the buck testing for nearly two years so that we could optimize the performance in many different types of possible crashes.

Finally, we were able to do some testing on a real prototype vehicle, and see our hard work pays off. All in all, we crashed about 50 actual vehicles. But, these were all internal tests done at the company proving grounds. We knew we did our job.

We hope the world will never get to see the enablers we built into the minivan – after all, we don’t want people to crash, but on the other hand, we want to brag about our hard work. This is why we spend countless days and weeks trying to find better ways to protect the people who drive our cars. And the NHTSA test was our ultimate chance to shine.

I anxiously awaited the test. NHTSA selected the test date and purchased the car. We provided them with the test set-up information – details such as the seat angle, all things they request per their standardized test prep document. We have to follow their procedure to the letter for the results to be validated. Before the test is run though, they will take measurements to ensure the set-up is correct. We are there to see it happen.

And wouldn’t you know it? The new minivan achieved Five Star for both the frontal and side! It’s hard to put into words how satisfying it was to bring home a top rating for the Grand Caravan and everyone who helped put it together. There are hundreds of people that worked hard for many years. Thank you, team!