The Safest Cars, Trucks And SUVs You Can Buy In 2025, According To The IIHS
When you're buying a new car, reliability and fuel efficiency are important, but ultimately nothing is more important than safety. If your car won't start you'll lose time and money, but a crash in an unsafe car could mean losing a loved one or even your own life. And while the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does its own crash testing, the gold standard for vehicle safety is actually the Insurance Institute For Highway Safety. It also makes sense when you think about it, as keeping drivers safe in a crash also means insurance companies spend less money.
The IIHS also regularly raises its standards, which means that while 71 vehicles were eligible for awards last year, only 48 qualified this year. Of those 48, though, 36 earned the coveted Top Safety Pick+ award. "We're once again challenging automakers to make their new models even safer than those they were building a year ago," IIHS President David Harkey said in a statement. "Every vehicle that earns a 2025 award offers a high level of safety in both the front seat and the second row."
So which cars, trucks and SUVs made the cut? Let's take a look.
Read more: Subaru Had It Right All Along
The safest small cars you can buy in 2025 are:
Honda Civic hatchback
Mazda 3 hatchback
Mazda 3 sedan
The safest midsize cars you can buy in 2025 are:
Honda Accord
Hyundai Ioniq 6
Toyota Camry
The safest midsize luxury car you can buy in 2025 is (yes, sadly, there's only one):
Mercedes-Benz C-Class
The safest small SUVs you can buy in 2025 are:
Genesis GV60
Honda HR-V
Hyundai Ioniq 5
Hyundai Kona
Hyundai Tucson
Mazda CX-30
Mazda CX-50
Subaru Solterra
The safest midsize SUVs you can buy in 2025 are:
Ford Mustang Mach-E
Hyundai Santa Fe (if built after November 2024)
Kia EV9
Kia Telluride
Mazda CX-70 (including the plug-in hybrid)
Mazda CX-90 (including the plug-in hybrid)
Nissan Pathfinder
The safest midsize luxury SUVs you can buy in 2025 are:
BMW X5
Genesis Electrified GV70
Genesis GV70 (if built after April 2024)
Genesis GV80
Lincoln Nautilus
Mercedes-Benz GLC
Mercedes-Benz GLE (with optional front crash prevention)
Volvo XC90 (if built before December 2024)
The safest large SUVs you can buy in 2025 are:
Audi Q7
Infiniti QX80
Rivian R1S (if built after August 2024)
The safest pickup truck you can buy is (yes, sadly, there's only one):
Toyota Tundra crew cab
Want more like this? Join the Jalopnik newsletter to get the latest auto news sent straight to your inbox...
Read the original article on Jalopnik.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Miami Herald
an hour ago
- Miami Herald
The most dangerous roads in America
The most dangerous roads in America America's drivers covered a record 3.4 trillion miles last year, yet the simple act of getting behind the wheel remains perilous. Traffic-related deaths are the leading cause of death for teens and the 13th leading cause for all Americans. To better understand the issue, researchers at analyzed data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and discovered the following trends. Drunk driving and speeding are both major issues Despite efforts to curb drunk driving, it remains the leading cause of driving fatalities followed closely by speeding. Driving fatalities increased significantly during COVID and remain high Driving fatalities are up nearly 25% over the past 10 years but the change hasn't been linear. There was a large jump in 2020 and 2021. While there has been progress in recent years, fatalities are still up compared to pre-pandemic. Rural roads are no longer more dangerous Up until 2015, rural roads were significantly more dangerous than urban roads. However, urban road fatalities overtook rural fatalities in 2016 and the gap has only widened. The most dangerous roadways in America While the most dangerous roads are in large urban areas, there is little correlation between a county's size and the number of road fatalities-indicating that road design and driving habits are important factors. The most dangerous counties Similar to roadways, more drivers doesn't always equate to an increase in fatalities, with little correlation between population and fatalities. The most dangerous states At the state level, Mississippi, Wyoming, and New Mexico have the most driving fatalities per capita. Methodology Fatal accident statistics were sourced from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and population data was sourced from the US Census Bureau. This story was produced by and reviewed and distributed by Stacker. © Stacker Media, LLC.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
The most dangerous roads in America
America's drivers covered a record 3.4 trillion miles last year, yet the simple act of getting behind the wheel remains perilous. Traffic-related deaths are the leading cause of death for teens and the 13th leading cause for all Americans. To better understand the issue, researchers at analyzed data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and discovered the following trends. Despite efforts to curb drunk driving, it remains the leading cause of driving fatalities followed closely by speeding. Driving fatalities are up nearly 25% over the past 10 years but the change hasn't been linear. There was a large jump in 2020 and 2021. While there has been progress in recent years, fatalities are still up compared to pre-pandemic. Up until 2015, rural roads were significantly more dangerous than urban roads. However, urban road fatalities overtook rural fatalities in 2016 and the gap has only widened. While the most dangerous roads are in large urban areas, there is little correlation between a county's size and the number of road fatalities—indicating that road design and driving habits are important factors. Similar to roadways, more drivers doesn't always equate to an increase in fatalities, with little correlation between population and fatalities. At the state level, Mississippi, Wyoming, and New Mexico have the most driving fatalities per capita. Fatal accident statistics were sourced from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and population data was sourced from the US Census Bureau. This story was produced by and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
Miami Herald
3 hours ago
- Miami Herald
Safety vs. Savings: Why Experts Can't Agree on ADAS Impact on Car Insurance Premiums
Advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) like automatic emergency braking have been making roads safer for years, but their presence can be viewed as a double-edged sword given their negative impact on auto insurance claims. On the upside, in 2022, AAA reported how Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) data from 2010-2015 found that vehicles equipped with automatic emergency braking exhibited a 50% decrease in police-reported rear-end crashes relative to equivalent cars without the system. Another study found that automatic emergency braking systems reduced the U.K.'s number of claims by 25% over five years, but it discovered that claim costs increased by a whopping 60%, according to Carscoops. On the downside, expenses for fixing ADAS require pricey components like cameras, LiDAR, and radar, and the proper equipment necessary for their calibration. Equipment for calibrating these parts can cost up to $1 million, making it difficult for the average corner garage to invest. To make matters more complicated, automakers are committed to making features like automatic emergency braking an essential part of all new cars by 2029, as outlined in the Federal Register. Additional examples of ADAS include, but aren't limited to, lane departure warning or prevention, parking sensors, and blind-spot monitoring. Essentially, anything adding to an insurer's losses can raise your premium. ADAS components are often located outside a vehicle, increasing the chances of damage during an accident. A 2023 report by AAA discovered that ADAS repairs represented a 36% average of the total cost of repairs in four common collision scenarios. Additionally, ADAS accounted for 40.9% of total repair costs in rear collision repairs. However, Tony Cotto, Director of Auto and Underwriting policy at the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC), said: "We're seeing AEB, especially, really bring down rear-end crashes, and some of those are the lower-dollar-value claims," according to Bankrate. In other words, reducing the frequency of small claims, even if remaining claims are higher, reduces overall losses for insurers, potentially reducing premiums. Jessica Cicchino, IIHS senior vice president for research, echoed this sentiment: "Across the board, insurers are paying out less money on claims for vehicles with [AEB] systems because the reduction in crashes is outweighing the increase in the cost." However, this doesn't rule out the possibility of drivers with ADAS facing higher repair costs if they get into accidents, especially with how precise the repairs are. Automotive News reports that: "Sensor[s] misaligned by a single degree-about the depth of a business card-can throw it [radar sensors] off target by 66 inches at a distance of 100 yards." While the belief that ADAS is increasing insurance premiums through higher claims isn't universally held among experts, some drivers repairing these systems won't be able to avoid a higher bill, and this won't change until the tech gets more affordable. A Wall Street Journal article from November cited vehicle maintenance and repair costs as increasing 28% over the past three years, and during Q2 2024, the average repair cost for an insurance claim was $4,721-up about $800 from over three years ago. Copyright 2025 The Arena Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
