10 Safest Cars

[Moon Ill]

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - The Ford Five Hundred and Mercury Montego, when equipped with optional side airbags, earned a Gold "Top Safety Pick" award for large cars from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The Audi A6 was given the Silver award for large cars.

The Five Hundred and Montego are corporate "twins," stylistically different versions of the same car.

Vehicles that received Gold awards earned "good" ratings -- the best possible -- for front-, side- and rear-impact protection. Vehicles that were rated good for front- and side-impact protection and "acceptable" for rear-impact protection earned Silver awards.

Ten vehicles in all achieved those ratings. Of those, five are made by sister-companies Volkswagen and Audi. Those vehicles all won Silver awards.

Among midsized cars, the Saab 9-3 and Subaru Legacy received Gold awards. Among small cars, only the Honda Civic earned a Gold award, the only car in its class to perform well in the side-impact crash test.

The Institute did not choose any pickups or SUVs because side-impact tests on most of these vehicles have not been completed yet.

No minivans were selected because none met the criteria for an award. While the Honda Odyssey, Nissan Quest and Toyota Sienna minivans performed well in front and side crash tests, their headrests, which protect against neck injury in rear-end impacts, were rated Marginal or Poor, the Institute said.

"The new awards mean consumers can compare cars' ratings more quickly and easily," said Institute president Brian O'Neill. "And when we test new car designs as they are introduced next year, it's possible that some additional models will be added to the 2006 Top Safety Picks."

All of the winning vehicles have side airbags designed to protect occupants' heads.

The top 10 follow:

Large Cars

Gold: Ford Five Hundred/Mercury Montego (Twin vehicles)

Silver: Audi A6

Midsized cars

Gold: Saab 9-3

Gold: Subaru Legacy

Silver: Audi A3

Silver: Audi A4

Silver: Chevrolet Malibu with optional side airbags

Silver: Volkswagen Jetta

Silver: Volkswagen Passat

Small car

Gold: Honda Civic 4-door

Minivans

No winners

http://www.cnn.com/2005/AUTOS/12/04/...ety/index.html

Yay Honda... btw where is Toyota?

[prored2000]

Good going Honda, they have the only small car to make the list.

Where's Toyota, not in top 10. I would imagine that the redesigned Camary might make this list but who's to say. I'd like to see the next 10, where's the Accord, it's got side airbags and all that I hope it's not too far down the list. Too many crazy Chicagoland drivers. :eek

[Elegant Runaway]

this was on 60 minutes i think, they tested all the cars but i dun think they tested a toyota.

[prored2000]

Did they test newer cars maybe?

[Hprelude92]

i'm wondering about the list of cars that they tested...

[dil2502]

how can you not tes a toyota, they have the most selling vehicle (i think), the camry

[DDR2]

no volvos? it appears VW/Audi can get one thing right in building cars is making them safe. they should really apply the same quality standards for making their cars reliable.

[hobie237]

Originally Posted by dil2502

how can you not tes a toyota, they have the most selling vehicle (i think), the camry

They probly didnt TEST a single vehicle. They most likely analyzed crash test data and real-world accident and injury data, available through police accident reports and insurance databases.