Ford tops safety list in U.S. insurance tests

Twenty-seven vehicles earned the top safety rating in a U.S. insurance-industry group's 2010-model crash tests, less than a third of the number a year earlier after a measure of performance in rollover accidents was added.

The top picks did the best job of protecting in front, side and rear collisions, as well as rollover crashes, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety said in a report today. Ford Motor Co. had the most cars on the list, while Subaru, the auto brand of Japan's Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., was the only manufacturer with winners in all vehicle classes in which it competes.

Toyota Motor Corp. vehicles were shut out and the number of vehicles on the list fell from a record 94 for the 2009 model year after the institute added a roof-strength gauge to see how the vehicles fared in rollover accidents. The tests now cover the four most common kinds of crashes, the group said.

The picks are "designs that go far beyond minimum federal safety standards," Adrian Lund, president of the Arlington, Virginia-based group, said in a statement. "Now that roof strength is a priority, we think manufacturers will move quickly to bolster roofs to do well in our roof-strength test."

Roofs that meet the institute's standard reduce the rate of serious and fatal injury in single-vehicle rollover crashes by about 50 percent compared with the federal government's minimum requirement, the institute said.

Toyota, the world's largest automaker, had 11 vehicles on the list for its 2009 models, including its Lexus and Scion brands.

Camry Missed Pick

The Toyota City, Japan-based company's Camry missed a top- pick rating because of the rear-end crash evaluation, the institute said. The car's seats and head restraints were rated "marginal" for protection against whiplash injury, the group said.

Ford, the only major U.S. automaker to avoid bankruptcy, had six top-pick vehicles, including four from its Volvo unit. Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford is in talks to sell the Volvo unit. The Taurus and Lincoln MKS, along with the Volvo S80, C30, XC60 and XC90 made the list.