1998 Honda Civic NHTSA Crash Test & Safety Ratings

NHTSA crash-tested the 1998 Honda Civic and published component-level scores (frontal driver 4/5, front passenger 4/5, side driver 3/5, rear passenger 3/5), but did not issue an OverallRating for this model year. We show exactly the component results NHTSA released rather than inventing a combined figure.

1998 Honda Civic 4-DR.

Overall rating	Not Rated
Frontal crash — overall	Not Rated
Frontal crash — driver	★★★★☆ 4/5
Frontal crash — front passenger	★★★★☆ 4/5
Side crash — overall	Not Rated
Side crash — driver	★★★☆☆ 3/5
Side crash — rear passenger	★★★☆☆ 3/5
Side barrier — combined	Not Rated
Side pole	Not Rated
Side barrier + pole — front seat	Not Rated
Side barrier + pole — rear seat	Not Rated
Rollover — overall	Not Rated
Rollover — stars	Not Rated

Electronic stability control	Not available
Forward collision warning	Not available
Lane departure warning	Not available

Frontal crash photo

NHTSA record counts tied to this tested vehicle: 464 complaints, 18 recalls, 1 investigations.

1998 Honda Civic 2-DR.

Overall rating	Not Rated
Frontal crash — overall	Not Rated
Frontal crash — driver	★★★★☆ 4/5
Frontal crash — front passenger	★★★★☆ 4/5
Side crash — overall	Not Rated
Side crash — driver	★★☆☆☆ 2/5
Side crash — rear passenger	★★★☆☆ 3/5
Side barrier — combined	Not Rated
Side pole	Not Rated
Side barrier + pole — front seat	Not Rated
Side barrier + pole — rear seat	Not Rated
Rollover — overall	Not Rated
Rollover — stars	Not Rated

Electronic stability control	Not available
Forward collision warning	Not available
Lane departure warning	Not available

Side crash photo

NHTSA record counts tied to this tested vehicle: 464 complaints, 18 recalls, 1 investigations.

How to read these ratings

Every figure on this page is copied from NHTSA's New Car Assessment Program database without reinterpretation. Three things trip people up:

Stars are comparative, not absolute. A five-star car is not "twice as safe" as a two-and-a-half-star car. NHTSA compares vehicles within size and weight classes.
Not Rated is not zero stars. It means that particular test was not performed on that particular build.
Older tests were easier. Frontal and side protocols were tightened repeatedly, so a 2005 five-star result is not the same test as a 2024 five-star result. Compare within a model year, not across decades.

Common questions

Has the 1998 Honda Civic been crash tested?

Yes. NHTSA's New Car Assessment Program tested 2 configurations of the 1998 Civic.

What does 'Not Rated' mean?

NHTSA prints 'Not Rated' when a specific test was not run on a specific configuration. It is not a zero-star result and we never display it as one.

Why are several configurations listed?

NHTSA tests structurally different versions separately — a two-door and a four-door, or a car with and without side airbags, can earn different stars. Averaging them would invent a rating NHTSA never issued, so each is listed on its own.

Sourcing

Star ratings, equipment declarations, rollover probabilities and crash test media are retrieved from the NHTSA New Car Assessment Program API (api.nhtsa.gov/SafetyRatings) on 2026-10-27. Photographs and videos are linked at their official NHTSA addresses rather than copied. Where NHTSA publishes "Not Rated", we reproduce that string verbatim.