Shopping for a 2011 car? Here are the top safety picks

By Barbara Marquand, Insure.com

In their drive to beat tougher vehicle safety award standards, automakers are miles ahead of where they were last year.

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Sixty-six vehicles earned the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's (IIHS) Top Safety Pick Award for 2011 -- more than double the number last year after IIHS added a new requirement for roof strength. Winners of this year's award include 40 cars, 25 SUVs and one minivan.

"We're more pleased than surprised," says IIHS President Adrian Lund says of the large number of vehicles that qualified this year compared to last. "We've always thought this was not rocket science in terms of strengthening the roof. It's a matter of materials and geometric design, and we thought they could make improvements quickly."

Last year, for instance, Toyota was shut out of the Top Safety Pick awards. This year, eight of its Toyota, Lexus or Scion vehicles qualified, second only to Hyundai/Kia and Volkswagen/Audi, which each have nine winners for 2011. Like Toyota, General Motors and Ford/Lincoln each earned eight awards. Subaru, which earned five awards for 2011, is the only manufacturer with a winner in all the vehicle classes in which it competes.

Reworked designs and improved safety

A notable winner is the popular Ford Explorer midsize SUV, which until now had never earned a Top Safety Pick. Ford also improved the roofs of two other midsize SUVs, the Ford Flex and the Lincoln MKT, as well as two of its midsize cars, the Ford Fusion and Lincoln MKZ, which initially missed the award for 2010. The 2011 Ford Fiesta is the only minicar to win the award this year.

Automakers reworked designs throughout the year. The number of qualifying vehicles for 2010 grew from 27 vehicles at the beginning of the model year to 58. Another 10 vehicles joined the list for 2011. Two models were discontinued and dropped off the list to bring the final tally to 66.

Every major car maker has at least one winning vehicle this year. However, no small pickups tested by IIHS qualified for the award for 2011. The Volkswagen Touareg is the only large SUV to qualify. Normally the institute doesn't evaluate large SUVs, but Volkswagen requested crash tests to demonstrate the Toureg's safety features. IIHS tests as many vehicles each year as its budget allows, and then automakers can request and pay for tests of vehicles that aren't already scheduled for testing.

Criteria for winning

To qualify for a Top Safety Pick award, vehicles must earn good ratings in safety tests for front, side, rollover and rear crashes. Winners also must have available electronic stability control, a feature that significantly reduces crash risk.

Last year's addition of a tougher roof-strength test was the second time the institute raised the bar for the award since creating the program for 2006 models.

"We're not doing this to make it harder," Lund says. "We're doing it because people still die in car crashes."

Vehicles rated good for rollover crash protection have roofs more than twice as strong as the current federal standard and, by the institute's reckoning, reduce the risk of serious and fatal injury in single-vehicle rollovers by about 50 percent compared to roofs meeting only the minimum standard.

Lund says the institute will develop tougher criteria for safety in frontal crashes by the end of 2011. More than 12,000 people died in frontal passenger vehicle crashes in 2009 in the United States, more than 6,000 died in side impacts and more than 8,000 died in rollovers, many of which also involved a front or side impact, according to IIHS. Rear-end crashes usually aren't fatal but result in a large number of injuries. Neck sprain or strain is the most commonly reported injury in two-thirds of insurance claims for injuries in all kinds of crashes, the institute says.

Affordable car insurance linked to safety

Vehicle safety can ultimately lead to better car insurance rates. Drivers and passengers in vehicles that score well in safety tests tend to suffer fewer and less-severe injuries in car crashes than people in similar, but less-safe vehicles. Fewer and less-serious injuries (and repair costs) translate into lower claims costs. If you drive a vehicle that has a low “loss history” for claims, you will enjoy better prices for collision and comprehensive coverage.

Besides crash-test ratings, another factor to consider when shopping for a vehicle is size. Larger, heavier vehicles tend to be safer than small cars simply due to the laws of physics. Small, light vehicles have less structure to absorb the energy from collisions, which increases risk of death and injury in single- and multiple-vehicle crashes.

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