How Safe Is Your Car? Here Are 2018’s Top Safety Pick+ Models [Video]

January 19, 2018

Organizations like the IIHS are helping alleviate deaths and injuries from car accidents by making cars safer than ever before.

Every day, we secure the things and people that matter the most to us in our cars. It’s important for most people to know their car is as safe as possible when they set off with loved ones in tow for school, work, or on that long-awaited vacation. To that end, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) takes every possible measure to show us just how safe the cars we buy are every year. Manufacturers know we care about safety, and they advertise each model they have that achieves the IIHS’ coveted “Top Safety Pick+” rating.

You may see fewer ads featuring that Top Safety Pick+ nod this year. So far for 2018, just 17 models have made the increasingly difficult rating. In 2017, almost 70 models made the list, and nearly 80 in 2016. So what huge difference did one year make that knocked so many cars off the Top Safety Pick+ list? Headlights.

IIHS test scoring is split into four categories: Good, Acceptable, Marginal, and Poor. This year, headlights must pass with a “Good” rating to make the “+” list, where an Acceptable performance got them in the club last year. The IIHS has also added a passenger-side small overlap crash test, which is causing more vehicles to fall short of the Top Safety Pick+ rating they used to earn easily in the past. To earn the coveted highest rating, vehicles must now score Good in five additional crash tests: driver-side small frontal overlap, moderate frontal overlap, side, roof strength and head restraints.

These are the 17 cars that have made the Top Safety Pick+ list so far

Check out the list below for the 17 models that scored the highest possible safety mark so far in 2018. All the vehicles in this list are also equipped with autonomous braking, and must score an “advanced” or “superior” rating in front crash prevention to make the list.

This list may be updated as new cars are added. Stay tuned!