The 27 Cars in 2010 that are considered the safest.

How important is car safety to you? It is definitely at the top of the list to me. After being in a car accident where my 2000 Chevrolet Cavalier was victoriously mauled by an 18 wheeler, knowing the safety rating of automobiles is something that I think is quite important.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety released a report recently that named the top vehicles for safety for 2010. The list last year was comprised of over 90 cars, while this year the list has been taken down to only 27. While this may sound like cars are becoming less safe, the IIHS put new stipulations in how it tested for auto safety…this year it included information about how the roof held up against rollovers.

The areas that were tested this year was the 40 mph frontal crash test, side crash test (which tests to see how a passenger would fare if they were to be hit by an SUV or truck), rear crash protection, rollover, electronic stability control and bumper evaluations at low speeds of 3 or 6 miles per hour (I believe this one has more to do with how much it would cost to fix a small parking lot accident rather than safety in such an accident).

The 27 autos that were picked are broken up into five categories large, midsize and small cars as well as midsize and small SUVs.  Those were the only categories where vehicles made the cut.

LARGE CARS

Buick LaCrosse
Ford Taurus
Lincoln MKS
Volvo S80

SMALL CARS

Honda Civic
4-door models (except Si)
with optional ESC
Kia Soul
Nissan Cube
Subaru Impreza
(except WRX)
Volkswagen Golf
4-door models

MIDSIZE CARS

Audi A3
Chevrolet Malibu
built after October 2009
Chrysler Sebring
4-door models with optional ESC
Dodge Avenger
with optional ESC
Mercedes C class
Subaru Legacy
Subaru Outback
Volkswagen Jetta sedan
Volkswagen Passat sedan
Volvo C30

MIDSIZE SUVs

Dodge Journey
Subaru Tribeca
Volvo XC60
Volvo XC90

SMALL SUVs

Honda Element
Jeep Patriot
with optional side torso airbags
Subaru Forester
Volkswagen Tiguan

Of course, these are just considered the safest cars. There are other cars that are safe, but didn’t get the highest marks. Something interesting I noticed while searching through the IIHS site is that the cars that didn’t come up as “Top Safety Picks” weren’t tested for rollover safety, in the small cars category anyway.

After all the mess that has been going on with Toyota/Lexus with the recalled floormats,  I’m actually surprised to not see them on the list at all. One would think that they would do something to make their cars more safe to get high safety picks for 2010 after that fiasco. I suppose there’s always next year, right?