It can be stated as fact that the new cars hitting American roads are the safest ones ever built. Crash test results are often touted by manufacturers in advertisements and the vaunted “five star crash rating” is something that lots of companies really push to consumers. You’ll be hearing less of that in 2011.

MSNBC.com is reporting that newer, more hardcore crash tests will inflict different punishment on the vehicles being tested and the chances are, your new “five star rated” model today, will only hit 3-4 stars when the new tests start. This should trip off a major wave of consumer confusion and force manufacturers to expend more of their time educating consumers as opposed to actually selling cars.

Why the new testing? Seemingly every vehicle produced for sale in America meets or exceeds the current testing standards and because of that, the tests need to be upgraded so OEM companies can bleed more engineering money they don’t have. We’re all for safety, especially when we’re hauling our families around, but the price of a new car is going to head upstream even further when cars have to be re-engineered to meet and beat these tests.

You can also bet that, as horsepower is banished, weight will also go up. Pretty soon the cars will be too slow to inflict any real damage, anyway.

Here’s how an NHTSA spokesperson said it: “When we first started those programs there was a wide variation from one model to the next,” said Tyson, the agency spokesman. “They have improved to the point there isn’t much differentiation.”

A guy from Volvo said, “Ten years ago there were bad cars and there were good cars, now there is not a bad car out there.”