Shoppers will be seeing stars DC

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New car shoppers will spot something new on those Moroney stickers. The government's 'star' safety ratings are required on the window stickers of all 2008 passenger vehicles sold in the United States.

All 2008 passenger vehicles sold in the U.S. must display the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's "star" ratings, the symbols of how well the product fared in the crash tests and rollover ratings.

Beginning Sept. 1, the new "Stars on Cars" law, part of a provision in the U.S. Department of Transportation's 2005 Highway Bill, requires automakers to post the results of front and side crash tests and in rollover avoidance tests. Five stars indicate the best possible safety rating for vehicles within the same weight class.

"We've supported the legislation since it was first proposed," said James Vondale, director of Ford Motor Co.'s Automotive Safety Office. "It provides consumers with important information at the point-of-purchase and helps show that we have many vehicles with excellent crash test ratings."

In 2006, Ford began posting the government's safety ratings on the stickers, which are also known as Monroney labels, on many of its vehicles, including the Ford Explorer, Mercury Mountaineer sport utility vehicles, SportTrac, the Ford Five Hundred and Mercury Montego large family cars -- all of which earned five-star ratings in the crash test categories. (The Ford Five Hundred, Mercury Montego and the new 2008 Taurus, Sable and the Taurus X crossover also earned Top Safety Pick ratings from the other big player in the safety arena, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.)

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