- The 2011 Ford Explorer has been named a Top Safety Pick by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
- The IIHS on Wednesday revealed the name of 10 vehicles added to the "winner's list" for 2011.
- They include the 2011 Volkswagen Touareg, the only large SUV to earn a Top Safety Pick award for the 2011 model year.
ARLINGTON, Virginia — The redesigned 2011 Ford Explorer has been named a Top Safety Pick by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety — the automotive equivalent of the dean's list and a rarefied group that the popular SUV had been shut out of up to this point.
In a bit of irony, the Explorer shifted from a truck-based body-on-frame design to a car-based unitized design for the new model year. The award by the IIHS casts into doubt the popular auto mythology that trucks are inherently safer than cars.
The announcement about the Explorer was bundled into a larger list of vehicles joining the IIHS winner's list for 2011. The new winners include the 2011 Mercedes-Benz E-Class coupe, 2011 Kia Optima, 2011 Volkswagen Jetta, 2011 Chevrolet Cruze, 2011 Scion tC, 2011 Volkswagen GTI four-door, 2011 Volkswagen Touareg, 2011 Hyundai Santa Fe and 2011 Mercedes-Benz GLK.
The IIHS said that 66 vehicles have earned the Top Safety Pick award for 2011, including 40 cars, 25 SUVs and a minivan. Winners "do the best job of protecting people in front, side, rollover, and rear crashes based on good ratings in Institute tests," it said. "Winners also must have [optional] electronic stability control."
Hyundai/Kia and Volkswagen/Audi were singled out for each having nine winners for 2011. Next in line with eight awards apiece are General Motors, Ford/Lincoln and Toyota/Lexus/Scion. Subaru is the only automaker with a winner in all the vehicle classes in which it competes.
The VW Touareg is the only large SUV to make it to the list for 2011. None of the small pickup trucks the IIHS evaluated qualified for the award, it noted. Large pickup trucks have not been tested yet.
The IIHS toughened up its criteria for Top Safety Pick this year, adding a requirement that all qualifiers must earn a good rating for performance in a roof strength test to assess protection in a rollover crash.
Inside Line says: A major coup for Explorer and a must-read list for car shoppers. — Anita Lienert, Correspondent
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delraylocal says:
09:34 AM, 12/22/2010
IMO- There has never been a better time to buy a Ford.
I am seriously considering buying one soon.
They are putting out some awesome cars and trucks and didn't take a bailout!
You can tell that Kia is stepping up there gamw like Hyundai started doing, good for them too.
dagmar3 says:
06:16 AM, 12/22/2010
I remember reading an interview Anitia Lienert conducted with Kia officials about seven years ago. The Kia executives told Lienert that Kia would displace Volvo as "the safety pick" for the informed consumer.
At the time, I thought the Kia officials were crazy. It turns out that the Koreans were not mucking around, and they have executed their plan with great determination and precision. After looking the complete list, Volvo had three top picks and Kia had five.
And in the minivan catagory, The Toyta Sienna was named a best pick and the Honda Odyssey was not.
blackdynamite0 says:
05:02 AM, 12/22/2010
HN4
Head still buried somewhere, huh?
BD
hn4u says:
08:27 PM, 12/21/2010
still, i wont go for a ford again or never...
hondalvr4life says:
07:11 PM, 12/21/2010
The rims on the Optima are just HIDEOUS.
racerhead says:
06:10 PM, 12/21/2010
Congrats to the 2011 Kia Optima for the Top Safety Pick .
I love the design and will consider the Optima in 2012.