Four more vehicles have earned top honors for their crashworthiness, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) announced today. The 2026 Audi A6, 2026 BMW X1, 2026 Mazda CX-5, and 2026 Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid have received Top Safety Pick+ awards in the institute’s latest round of testing.
The IIHS, a nonprofit organization funded by insurance companies, continuously makes its crash tests more stringent, which leads to car manufacturers following to make their vehicles safer. The IIHS says that to qualify for an award this year, vehicles need good ratings in its moderate overlap front, small overlap front and side crash tests, and acceptable- or good-rated headlights across all trims.
They also need a good rating in the pedestrian front crash prevention test and, to earn the “plus,” an acceptable or good rating in the updated vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention test introduced last year.
Three of the honorees — the Audi A6, Mazda CX-5, and Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid — are all-new for the 2026 model year. When cars enter a new generation, they bring updated safety systems along with new tech and design, and that has been the case with these vehicles.
The 2026 BMW X1, meanwhile, “arrives in the winner’s circle thanks to a good rating in the moderate overlap front crash test, which it had not undergone earlier,” the IIHS said.
The institute says the all-new, third-gen 2026 Mazda CX-5 “notches a ‘plus’ with the help of good ratings in the vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention evaluation and the pedestrian crash prevention test. The 2025 model earned a poor rating in the vehicle-to-vehicle test and was not rated in the current pedestrian evaluation, which incorporates day and night performance.”
About the IIHS
The IIHS is one of America’s two crash-testing organizations, with the other being the government’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
Both crash test and rate vehicles, but evaluations performed by the IIHS are known to be more stringent and are updated more often. It routinely adds cars that pass its tests with flying colors to either its Top Safety Pick or higher Top Safety Pick+ winners lists.
This latest round of testing also included the 2026 Audi A3, 2026 Cadillac CT5, 2026 Lexus IS, 2026 Nissan Kicks, and 2026 Toyota Tacoma crew cab.
The IIHS recently said that its tests have saved at least 50,000 lives and $538 billion since they began in 1995.
