Despite having already garnered a string of publicity for what seems like months now - including a stint as Bumblebee in the summer blockbuster Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro was the subject of some unexpected bad news when the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration – or NHSTA – gave the Camaro a lower-than-expected four out of five stars rating for its front impact test.

While the Camaro did score a perfect five stars on its side impact test, the four-star rating comes as a bit of a blow for the American sports car, especially when you consider that its two main rivals, the Ford Mustang and the Dodge Challenger,->ke249 scored five out of five on their tests.

To the uninitiated, this rating system seems to be just a case of one brand having more stars than the other, but to those who care deeply about car safety, it’s a pretty significant discrepancy. According to the NHTSA, a car receives the full five stars means if it has a 10-percent or less chance of serious injury in the event an accident occurs, whereas a four-star rating means that there's an 11- to 20-percent chance of serious injury in the same situation.

Continued after the jump.

For the record, the Camaro scored four stars for both the driver and the front passenger while scoring five stars for the aforementioned front-seat passenger side impact test and in the rollover test.

If you’re Chevrolet, you must be pulling your hair out in fits on unbridled rage over the NHTSA results. On the other hand, if you’re Ford or Dodge, you must be revelling in the moment, knowing that you’ve managed to one-up your arch-nemesis.