Japanese cars do best in insurance industry safety rankings

Almost 50 vehicles this year earned a Top Safety Pick+ rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), despite the tougher criteria for 2016. Also earning top marks is the recently refreshed 2016 Volkswagen Passat. The auto-safety regulator is also introducing a new crash-test dummy with more sensitive injury sensors and would adjust its star ratings to include credit for crash-avoidance technologies.

Of the 61 vehicles awarded, 48 get the even higher ranking of Top Safety Pick Plus for having a superior or advanced-rated front crash prevention system with automatic braking capabilities.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has listed its safest vehicles by doing crash tests. The IIHS began examining the new crash-avoidance technology two years ago. IIHS releases ratings as it evaluates new models, adding to the ranks of winners throughout the year. The aim is to re-create real-world crash situations where vehicles rarely hit objects head-on, but rather “catch a corner”, as IIHS spokesman Adrian Lund, describes it. “Crashes are not really nice, symmetrical affairs”, said Lund, explaining why his organization has long placed high value on the partial front collision. Now four more Subaru models have made the list.

Thirteen vehicles, including five made by General Motors Co., earned the institute’s second-highest rating of “Top Safety Pick”.

Ford has just one winning model, the F-150 Supercrew. While it’s not the same as the IIHS test, it does rate cars on how well they do in crashes where the auto is pointing at an angle to the barrier, which has a similar effect to the partial front collision.

Those manufacturers have been quicker to adopt crash-prevention technology, and that may have prevented traditional manufacturers from a better showing. It singles out the 2016 Audi Q3 as an example of that.

VW touted the appearance of the 2016 Passat sedan on the IIHS list, after the company redesigned the vehicle with a fully reinforced structure.

There is a second set of list, the Top Safety Pick, with 13 awardees.

The institute noted that automatic braking is standard on the Scion iA, a $16,000 subcompact.

More automakers are expected to make autobrake systems standard equipment under a voluntary agreement that 10 manufacturers reached earlier this year.