Safest Car Brands: How Higher Safety Ratings Can Impact Your Insurance

The safest car brands offer models that not only keep you and your passengers safe in various types of collisions but also include numerous safety features that help prevent accidents in the first place. Cars with high safety ratings and optional safety features may even help lower your auto insurance rates.

Read on to learn more about how car safety ratings are determined and which essential safety features to look for when purchasing a new vehicle.

On This Page

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  What Makes a Car Brand Safe?

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  Types of Car Safety Features

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  What Are Car Safety Ratings?

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  Safest Car Brands

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  Which Car Models Are Considered the Safest?

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  Can Driving a Safer Car Brand Reduce My Insurance Costs?

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  FAQs

What Makes a Car Brand Safe?

A car brand’s overall safety is typically determined by its models’ individual safety ratings, which assess how well a vehicle handles a crash and how effectively it reduces the risk of occupant injury. Depending on the rating source, evaluations may also consider safety features that help reduce or prevent injuries. Some safety features also help prevent accidents by issuing warnings to the driver or automatically responding in certain scenarios.^[1]

Types of Car Safety Features

Some car safety features have been made mandatory by law, making them standard across all passenger car models, as well as some trucks, vans and electric vehicles. These features include:^[2]

• Seat belts: Also known as car safety belts, these were made mandatory in all passenger vehicles in 1968. Only the driver’s seat currently displays a government-mandated seat-belt warning when the driver is not wearing one, but this will apply to all seats in new vehicles as of 2026.
• Front-seat airbags: Made mandatory for front seats in 1999, airbags inflate in a crash to prevent a person’s head from striking the front of the car and causing whiplash. While not guaranteed to prevent injuries, airbags are effective, with a demonstrated 29% reduction in driver fatalities and a 32% reduction in fatalities among front-seat passengers ages 13 and older.
• Anti-lock brakes: Made mandatory for all new passenger cars in 2000, this safety feature helps drivers maintain steering control during emergency braking. Without anti-lock brakes, emergency braking can cause you to lose the ability to swerve around obstacles, and some cars, depending on their speed and weight, could continue to slide forward for 100 feet or more.
• Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children (LATCH): This standardized method for securing child safety seats in vehicles was mandated in 2002. However, not every rear seat in a car may be LATCH-compatible, such as in some models with three rear seats in a row.
• Tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS): This sensor was mandated in 2007 to indicate when tire pressure is low and requires refilling. Underinflated tires increase the risk of a blowout, particularly at high speeds, which could result in a serious accident.[3]
• Traction control: Made mandatory for new vehicles in 2011, this safety feature automatically reduces power to any wheel that starts spinning faster than the others and may also apply braking pressure to the wheels that are spinning excessively. This helps you maintain traction between your wheels and the road, reducing the risk of spinning out on slippery surfaces.
• Electronic stability control: This safety feature uses a combination of anti-lock brakes and independent four-wheel braking to help your vehicle maintain its intended direction, even if it begins to veer away from the direction your front wheels are pointing. It was made mandatory in all passenger cars in 2012.
• Backup camera: Also called a rearview camera, this safety feature was made mandatory in vehicles starting in 2018. It activates when you put your car in reverse, alerting you to a pedestrian or another vehicle approaching from behind to prevent you from backing into them.
• Minimum sound levels: Made mandatory for all electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid cars in 2022, this safety feature ensures that a minimum amount of noise is made from otherwise silent cars to help alert other nearby drivers and pedestrians that you’re there to help prevent accidents.

Other safety features that can reduce accidents are considered optional and may not be available with every new car model. Some safety features to be on the lookout for can include:^[2]

• Automatic emergency braking: This safety feature automatically brakes your car if its sensors or cameras pick up a potential hazard in your car’s driving path. While it may not be available in every vehicle right now, it will become a U.S. government-mandated safety feature in all new cars manufactured from 2029 onward.
• Blind spot monitoring (BSM): Sensors indicate when another driver or pedestrian is in your vehicle’s blind spot.
• Brake assist: Provides additional braking when you don’t brake hard enough during an emergency stop.
• Forward collision warning (FCW): Helps detect when an object is in front of your moving vehicle and warns the driver. It may also utilize automatic emergency braking technology to stop your vehicle if it senses you’re about to hit something.
• Lane-departure warning (LDW): Utilizes front-facing cameras to warn you if you begin drifting out of your lane. Some vehicles may also feature technology that automatically corrects your car’s trajectory back into your lane if it detects drifting.
• Adaptive cruise control: Once activated by the driver, it uses sensors and other technologies to accelerate and decelerate the vehicle based on surrounding traffic, helping you maintain a safe distance from nearby vehicles with minimal driver input.
• Automatic high beams: Also called high-beam assist, this safety feature automatically dims your high beams when it detects a vehicle ahead to prevent blinding them, and turns them back on when the road is clear.
• Adaptive headlights: Unlike standard headlights, which always point directly forward, this technology allows your headlights to pivot based on where your car is turning, allowing you to see around dark turns better.
• Telematics: Utilizes a combination of GPS, cell service and other technology to allow your car to connect with external services, such as first responders after a crash, roadside assistance if you get a flat tire and even weather services to let you know about oncoming storms.

Which Safety Features Matter Most?

Seatbelts are among the most effective safety features in passenger cars and trucks — reducing the risk of fatal injuries by about half when worn in the front seat. Anti-lock brakes, electronic stability control and airbags are also among the most significant safety features that help protect drivers and passengers in an accident or help prevent one.^[2]

What Are Car Safety Ratings?

Notable car safety ratings are scores awarded by either the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), a federal agency, or the independent Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). While each organization uses different metrics to determine its ratings, both scores are based on how well individual car models perform in various crash and safety tests. These results indicate how safe drivers and passengers and, in some cases, pedestrians are in the event of an accident.

NHTSA 5-Star Rating System

The NHTSA uses three types of crash tests, along with a test that measures a vehicle’s resistance to rolling over. Each test is scored from one to five, with one being the least safe and five being the safest. These tests include:^[4]

• Frontal crash test: This gauges the level of injuries in a head-on collision.
• Side barrier crash test: This measures injury severity when a vehicle is T-boned, such as during a collision while driving through an intersection.
• Side pole crash test: This test measures the severity of injuries when a vehicle skids sideways into a pole, such as a telephone pole or tree.
• Rollover resistance test: This test measures the vehicle's weight distribution to assess the likelihood of tipping over in extreme driving conditions, such as sharp turns at high speeds.

Scores are given to different seats as well. For example, the driver’s seat could earn a five-star rating in the frontal crash test while the front passenger seat may earn less, depending on the results of the test. Additionally, both side barrier and side pole crash tests are typically combined for a side impact rating, which can similarly differ between the front and rear seats.^[5]

The NHTSA “overall vehicle score” is a combined average of all three final ratings – frontal, side and rollover resistance.^[5]

While the NHTSA recommends various safety features, such as forward collision warning, lane-departure warning and others, these features are not factored into the five-star rating system.^[5]

IIHS Top Safety Pick

Much like the NHTSA, the IIHS conducts crash tests to assess how well people are protected from injuries in different types of accidents. However, they differ in both the types of tests and the rating criteria. Not meant to replace the NHTSA ratings, the IIHS serves as a supplemental factor in evaluating vehicle safety.

Rather than a numerical rating, each IIHS test is scored based on four levels of performance: Good, Acceptable, Marginal and Poor. The IIHS tests include:^[4]

• Small overlap front test: Gauges injuries sustained in both front seats when a vehicle strikes a barrier from either front corner, with each corner receiving its own test.
• Moderate overlap front test: Gauges injuries sustained by an adult driver and a small child seated in the left rear passenger seat when struck by another vehicle at an offset angle.
• Side test: Gauges injuries sustained when a vehicle is T-boned on the driver’s side.

In addition to crashworthiness, the IIHS tests for safety feature performance in accident avoidance and restraints in the following criteria:^[6]

• Vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention
• Pedestrian front crash prevention
• Headlights
• Seatbelt reminders
• LATCH

Based on test results, car models are awarded the IIHS Top Safety Pick, with those that earn the highest ratings receiving the Top Safety Pick+ for that year. Below is the criteria for each, as of 2025:^[7]

Do Safety Ratings Influence Insurance Premiums?

Driving a car with a high safety rating can help reduce your insurance premiums, as a higher safety rating indicates both a reduced risk of injury and, in the case of the IIHS Top Safety Pick, a lower chance of getting into an accident. For example, cars rated with higher crash protection can help protect passengers from injury, thereby lowering potential medical payments.^[8][9]

Additionally, safety features can help lower the risk of getting into an accident in the first place, which can also help keep your premiums down, as it lessens the chance of you filing a liability claim.^[8][9]

Safest Car Brands

Based on combined NHTSA and IIHS test results, several car brands ranked higher than others in 2025. However, keep in mind that while some brands may feature cars with high safety ratings, that doesn’t mean every model has equivalent scores. Below are some of the brands that received both the Top Safety Pick+ and an Overall five-star rating for one or more of their models in 2025:^[7][10]

• Audi
• BMW
• Ford
• Genesis
• Hyundai
• Kia
• Lexus
• Lincoln
• Mazda
• Nissan
• Subaru
• Toyota
• Volkswagen

Which Car Models Are Considered the Safest?

Based on NHTSA and IIHS safety ratings, a few car models stood out in 2025. Below are specific 2025 or 2026 models that received both an overall five-star rating and the Top Safety Pick+ designation:^[7][10]

• Audi Q6 e-tron EV
• BMW X3
• Ford Explorer
• Genesis GV80
• Hyundai Tucson
• Kia K4
• Lexus NX
• Lincoln Nautilus
• Mazda CX-70 PHEV
• Nissan Murano
• Subaru Forester
• Toyota Camry
• Toyota Tundra

Can Driving a Safer Car Brand Reduce My Insurance Costs?

Driving a safer car brand won’t necessarily reduce your insurance costs, as not every car model made under a brand is equally safe. However, a combination of safety features and a high safety rating for a brand’s specific model can help lower your insurance costs, as your insurer may perceive a lower risk of an accident.