Nine 2025 and 2026 vehicles across seven brands got safety nods for their exceptional protection based on crash tests, while models from the same brands failed to win awards.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety ratings represent one of the auto industry’s most followed safety stamps of approval. Tweaks by automakers to their vehicles’ designs help them attain the nonprofit group’s highest awards while failure to meet its standards result in subpar ratings.

For instance, improvements to several crossovers elevated their ratings in the recent testing round. BMW’s X3 nabbed the group’s premier Top Safety Pick+ honor with its improved headlight safety, and Toyota’s Corolla Cross and Nissan’s Rogue earned the next highest award of Top Safety Pick by achieving better side crash test results.

Even for several winners of the highest award – the X3, Ford Explorer and the compact Kia Sportage SUV – the rating applies only to units built after certain dates.

Other Top Safety Pick+ winners are the Audi A5 coupe and Q6 Sportback e-tron crossover and the Hyundai Ioniq 9 crossover.

The other Top Safety Pick honoree is the compact Hyundai Santa Cruz pickup, which nevertheless rated acceptable for pedestrian crash avoidance rather than the top good rating.

Both top awards this year require good or acceptable ratings in front pedestrian crash avoidance, good ratings in front and side crash tests, and good or acceptable headlight ratings across trims. A good rating in an additional front crash test is required for the Top Safety Pick+ award.

Several other Audi, Kia and Toyota models failed to place due to substandard test results. They are the Audi Q4 e-tron and Q4 Sportback e-tron, the Kia EV6 and the Toyota 4Runner. The Toyota Grand Highlander just missed an award due to an acceptable rating in a front crash test. 

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