Safest Cars to Drive for 2010

Published: Tue 24 Nov 2009

Larry Roth

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), an independent non-profit organization funded by car insurance companies, has unveiled its 2010 list of the safest vehicles on the road. The list included 19 cars and eight SUVs. Volkswagen, Ford, and Subaru were the manufacturers with the most vehicles on the list. Fewer vehicles made the IIHS's list this year, mostly because the organization included a new test to rate the general safety of a vehicle.

For car buyers concerned with safety, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's yearly list of the safest new cars throws in several surprises. Domestic automaker Ford and its Volvo division took the lead with six awards, closely followed by Volkswagen and Subaru with five honors each. U.S. manufacturer Chrysler was another winner this year.

"Chrysler this year has four top safety picks," noted the president of the Insurance Institute, Adrian Lund.

Mr. Lund explained that, in total, 27 vehicles earned top awards for safety for the 2010 model year. Other strong performers included General Motors and Honda. In an interesting twist for 2010, the biggest automaker in the world, Toyota, did not receive a single safety award.

"The absence of Toyota among the top safety picks is a bit of a surprise," Lund commented. "They had 11 of these for 2009 and none this year."

One of the reasons for Toyota's poor performance is that, in addition to front, side, and rear-end impact collisions, vehicles this year had to have roofs solid enough to endure rollover accidents. Although Volkswagen models withstood the new rollover test well, many other new cars failed.

"Well, a lot of vehicles missed this list because of the new roof strength rating," Lund explained. "Their roofs aren't quite strong enough to get a good rating in our test."

New cars must also come with electronic stability control (ESC) in order to make the IIHS's new list. ESC helps the driver maintain control of the vehicle in skid situations by applying the brakes to the appropriate wheel or wheels.

"It's very interesting to see manufacturers build safer and safer cars. And the real winner is the consumer," noted Karl Brauer, the editor for car site Edmunds.com.

The Insurance Institute also cites the new rollover test as the reason why fewer vehicles made the list this year. In 2009, over 90 vehicles earned one of the prestigious IIHS safety awards, compared with fewer than 30 this year.