DEARBORN, Mich., Feb. 16, 2004 - The 2004 Ford F-150 SuperCab and SuperCrew have each earned the top safety score in the federal government's frontal impact crash test - five stars for the driver and five stars for the front-seat passenger.

In the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) test, officially known as the New Car Assessment Program (NCAP), vehicles are rated on the protection provided to properly seat belt restrained occupants in a frontal collision. Five stars indicate the best crash protection. More occupant fatalities and injuries occur in frontal crashes than any other type of crash.

"The five-star ratings confirm our own analysis of the safety performance of this excellent vehicle," said Jim Vondale, director, Automotive Safety Office. "The F-150 has a strong record for real-world safety."

The new F-150 also recently received the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's (IIHS) highest ranking of "Best Pick" in frontal crash performance. The F-150 was the first, and only, pickup truck to receive a "Best Pick" in the high-speed frontal offset crash category.

2004 F-150
The new F-150 has been designed, engineered and manufactured to be a breakthrough product that resets the competitive benchmark within the full-size pickup truck segment. Key to this effort is safety performance. The 2004 F-150 has been developed with a dedicated focus on safety, making it the safest F-150 ever, as is evidenced from the enhancements below:

  • Crash-optimized structure: If a collision is unavoidable, the new F-150 helps to protect its occupants with a structure designed to help absorb and dissipate crash energy and maintain occupant compartment integrity.
  • Restraint systems: Advanced restraints provide additional occupant protection, which now includes passenger occupant classification as part of more than a dozen elements that make up the Personal Safety System - a suite of restraint technologies designed to tailor their response to the severity of the crash and other factors.
  • Beltminder: A vehicle occupant's best line of defense in crashes remains the safety belt. Ford Motor Company's industry-leading technology reminds the driver and front-seat passenger to buckle up by sounding a gentle tone and displaying an icon on the instrument panel.