(MONEY Magazine) – We've told you how to make your car as safe as possible by doing maintenance and spotting trouble signs. But how does your car really measure up when it comes to safety? In the tables on pages 153 and 155, you'll find ratings of 41 cars, minivans, sport utilities and pickups that have scored the highest marks in government and insurance industry crash tests. As a point of comparison, we've added the rankings of the three best-selling models in each car category, even when they did not earn top marks for safety. Top sellers are printed in blue in the tables. And, for the first time, we've included the government's car stability ratings, which show which cars are more likely to roll over in single-vehicle crashes. More on that later.

The data used for the ratings comes from several sources. These include the front- and side-impact tests done by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), in which cars are given a minimum of one star (poor) to a maximum of five stars (best). Such crash-test ratings are comparable only to other vehicles of the same size and weight. A four-star ranking in a small car, for example, is not comparable to a four-star rank for a much heavier minivan. We also consider the so-called offset frontal crash test ratings by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. In these tests, one side of the front end of the car is crashed into a barrier at 40 mph. Many safety experts believe these offset tests more closely represent real accidents than NHTSA's head-on tests. The results are expressed as best pick, good, acceptable, marginal and poor. The injury-index data compiled by the Highway Loss Data Institute from insurance company records of real-world accidents assesses the likelihood that you'll be injured in a car accident in any given model, with 100 representing the average--a rating of 70 means you are 30% less likely to be injured in that vehicle than in the average car.

As for the stability scores, they are based on a formula developed by NHTSA that compares a car's width with the height of its center of gravity. Called the static stability ratio, its results range from about 0.98 to 1.50. A low ratio means greater danger of rollovers. As a group, the sport utilities have much lower ratios than passenger cars, which have a much lower center of gravity. For instance, the Ford Explorer has a 1.06 ratio, which NHTSA says translates into a 30% to 40% chance of rolling over in a single-vehicle accident. The popular Honda Accord mid-size car has a 1.47 ratio, meaning it has a less than 10% chance of rolling over in a single-vehicle accident. Automakers contend that the formula does not reflect real driving conditions. But many auto-safety experts say it at least gives an indication of which vehicles are likeliest to roll over.

Finally, we've crunched the numbers from the various tests and come up with our own one- to five-star safety rating for cars. Here's our formula: Since twice as many fatal accidents involve frontal crashes as side-impact ones, the combined results of the NHTSA and Insurance Institute frontal-crash tests account for 50% of our rating, while the side-impact tests determine 25% and the real-world accident statistics the final 25%. Our ratings do not include the rollover numbers, because this information has only recently become available and it's unclear how they fit into overall accident patterns.

Of the 46 cars in our tables, 11 achieved five stars in our rating system. Thirty got four stars. Five cars on the list are rated lower but are top sellers. No vehicle received five stars unless it got at least a "good" rating in the so-called offset tests conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Despite the recent publicity about fatal rollover accidents in Ford Explorers equipped with Firestone tires, we give the Explorer four stars, along with eight other sport utilities; the Toyota 4Runner gets five stars. There's no question that an SUV--any SUV--is more likely to roll over than, say, a Ford Taurus. Nevertheless, these utilities get a high rating because of their weight and size. In the four-wheel-drive-model SUVs rated four stars here, the combined death rate from all types of accidents is less than that of the average vehicle.

To see the most up-to-date ratings for more than 100 cars, go to www.money.com.

WITH ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY KATHERINE ZAMIRA JOSEPHS

SAFE CAR RANKINGS

[A] THE MONEY SAFETY RATING [B] Front-crash rating(1-5 stars) DRIVER [C] [Front-crash rating(1-5 stars)] PASSENGER [D] Side-crash rating (1-5 stars) FRONT SEAT [E] [Side-crash rating (1-5 stars)] REAR SEAT [F] OFFSET-CRASH-TEST RATING [G] INJURY INDEX (AVG.= 100] [H] STATIC STABILITY RATIO[1] [I] SIDE AIR BAGS [J] ANTI-LOCK BRAKES [K] BASE PRICE

[A] [B] [C] [D] [E] [F]

SMALL CARS

Volkswagen New Beetle 2dr ***** 4 4 5 3 Best pick Volkswagen Golf **** 5 5 -- -- Acceptable Ford Focus[1] *** 5 5 4 1 -- Honda Civic[1] *** 4 4 3 3 Acceptable Chevrolet Cavalier[1] ** 4 4 1 3 Poor

MID-SIZE CARS

Toyota Avalon ***** 4 5 4 5 Best pick Toyota Camry[1] ***** 4 5 4 -- Best pick Volkswagen Passat ***** 5 5 4 4 Best pick Volvo S70 ***** 5 5 4 -- Good Ford Crown Victoria **** 5 5 4 4 -- Ford Taurus[1] **** 5 5 3 3 Good Honda Accord[1] **** 4 4 4 5 Acceptable Mercury Grand Marquis **** 5 5 4 4 -- Mitsubishi Galant **** 4 4 5 4 Acceptable Nissan Maxima **** 4 4 4 4 Acceptable

LUXURY CARS

BMW 540i ***** -- -- -- -- Best pick Lexus LS 400 ***** -- -- -- -- Best pick Audi A8 4 Dr **** 5 5 4 4 -- Cadillac Deville[1] **** 3 4 4 4 -- Lexus ES 300 **** 4 4 5 4 -- Lincoln Continental **** -- -- -- -- Acceptable Lincoln Town Car[1] **** 5 5 -- -- -- Mercedes-Benz E320[1] **** -- -- -- -- Acceptable Volvo S80 **** -- -- 5 5 Best pick

MINIVANS

Ford Windstar[1] ***** 5 5 5 5 Good Honda Odyssey[1] ***** 5 5 -- -- Good Toyota Sienna ***** 5 5 4 5 Best pick Chrysler Voyager **** 4 4 5 5 Marginal Dodge Grand Caravan **** 4 4 5 5 Marginal Mazda MPV[1] **** 4 4 5 5 Acceptable

SPORT UTILITIES

Toyota 4Runner ***** 4 5 5 5 Good Ford Explorer[1] **** 4 4 5 5 Acceptable Infiniti QX4 **** 4 5 5 5 Marginal Jeep Grand Cherokee[1] **** 3 3 4 5 Marginal Mercury Mountaineer **** 4 4 5 5 Acceptable Nissan Pathfinder **** 4 5 5 5 Marginal Ford Expedition **** 4 4 -- -- -- Honda CR-V **** 4 5 5 5 Marginal Jeep Wrangler **** 4 4 -- -- Acceptable Subaru Forester **** 4 4 -- -- Good Chevrolet Blazer[1] *** 3 4 5 5 Poor

PICKUP TRUCKS

Dodge Ram ext.[1] **** 4 4 -- -- -- Ford F-150[1] **** 4 4 5 -- -- Ford Ranger **** 4 4 5 -- Acceptable Mazda B-Series **** 4 4 5 -- Acceptable Chevrolet Silverado[1] *** 3 4 -- -- --

[G] [H] [I] [J] [K]

[SMALL CARS]

[Volkswagen New Beetle 2dr] -- -- 3 3 $15,900 [Volkswagen Golf] 103 -- 3 3 14,900 [Ford Focus][1] -- -- N.A. Opt. 12,385 [Honda Civic][1] 120 1.43 Opt. Opt. 12,885 [Chevrolet Cavalier][1] 121 1.28 N.A. 3 13,260

[MID-SIZE CARS]

[Toyota Avalon] 76 -- 3 N.A. 25,845 [Toyota Camry][1] 97 1.35 3 3 17,675 [Volkswagen Passat] 83 -- 3 3 21,500 [Volvo S70] 61 -- 3 3 27,500 [Ford Crown Victoria] 65 -- N.A. N.A. 21,965 [Ford Taurus][1] 86 1.45 N.A. N.A. 18,260 [Honda Accord][1] 105 1.47 3 N.A. 15,400 [Mercury Grand Marquis] 55 1.40 N.A. N.A. 22,805 [Mitsubishi Galant] 160 -- 3 N.A. 17,557 [Nissan Maxima] 109 1.34 3 3 26,449

[LUXURY CARS]

[BMW 540i] 71 -- 3 3 53,900 [Lexus LS 400] 58 -- 3 3 54,005 [Audi A8 4 Dr] -- -- 3 3 62,200 [Cadillac Deville][1] 56 -- 3 3 40,495 [Lexus ES 300] 80 -- 3 3 31,505 [Lincoln Continental] 56 1.43 3 N.A. 39,380 [Lincoln Town Car][1] -- -- 3 N.A. 39,145 [Mercedes-Benz E320][1] 72 -- 3 3 49,900 [Volvo S80] 65 -- 3 3 36,900

[MINIVANS

[Ford Windstar][1] 65 1.24 3 3 $21,875 [Honda Odyssey][1] 44 -- N.A. 3 26,400 [Toyota Sienna] 72 -- N.A. 3 23,905 [Chrysler Voyager] 74 1.24 N.A. Opt. 19,160 [Dodge Grand Caravan] 74 1.22 N.A. Opt. 24,245 [Mazda MPV][1] 88 1.17 N.A. 3 21,155

[SPORT UTILITIES]

[Toyota 4Runner] 98 1.06 N.A. Opt. 28,895 [Ford Explorer][1] 68 1.06 3 3 25,115 [Infiniti QX4] 73 -- 3 3 29,655 [Jeep Grand Cherokee][1] 60 1.07 N.A. Std. 32,665 [Mercury Mountaineer] 68 1.06 3 3 27,655 [Nissan Pathfinder] 94 1.10 N.A. Opt. 29,637 [Ford Expedition] 62 1.07 N.A. 3 29,845 [Honda CR-V] 91 1.18 N.A. Opt. 20,550 [Jeep Wrangler] 73 1.19 N.A. Opt. 14,790 [Subaru Forester] 72 -- N.A. Opt. 20,295 [Chevrolet Blazer][1] 74 1.09 N.A. 3 19,170

[PICKUP TRUCKS]

[Dodge Ram ext.][1] 66 1.09 N.A. 3 19,815 [Ford F-150][1] 65 1.18 N.A. 3 27,105 [Ford Ranger] 76 1.10 N.A. 3 15,735 [Mazda B-Series] 82 1.21 N.A. Opt. 16,295 [Chevrolet Silverado][1] 52 -- N.A. 3 22,374

KEY [1]Blue indicates top-selling cars in their category.

Notes: Dash: Information not available. Opt.: Optional, 3: Standard. N.A.: Feature not available on this model. [1]Higher numbers indicate greater stability. Sources: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Highway Loss Data Institute.