30 vehicles are deemed safest models for 2019

Strong crash-test performance, collision avoidance systems and high-quality headlights enabled 30 vehicles to qualify for the top honors in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s initial 2019 model-year rankings.

Those vehicles received IIHS Top Safety Pick+ honors, which reflect the best of the best. Last year, only 12 vehicles initially qualified for the top category.

Another 27 vehicles qualified as IIHS Top Safety Pick winners, which reflect the best of the rest.

“We continue to be encouraged that automakers are making changes and addressing the criteria to improve the safety of their vehicles,” said David Harkey, president of IIHS.

The organization tightened the qualifications for 2019, increasing the crash-test standards from a year earlier.

Several major brands had impressive performances. Nearly all of Japanese brand Subaru’s models landed on one of the top two lists. And Korean auto brands Kia and Hyundai, which are part of the same company, scored five and four wins, respectively.

Nearly as notable as the vehicles that made it is the list of vehicles that didn’t.

Among them: none from General Motors, Tesla, Ford Motor, Volvo or Fiat Chrysler’s Jeep, Ram and Dodge.

To be sure, brands can qualify for the IIHS honors as the year progresses if they offer proof of upgrades or additional safety tests.

And some automakers didn’t nominate their vehicles and thus couldn’t qualify. Tesla, for example, didn’t put up its three vehicles for consideration.

The stricter standards for 2019’s Top Safety Pick+ honors require automakers to get a “good” rating in a passenger-side crash test designed to assess the vehicle’s performance when the front-right corner smashes into something. It previously had to be only “acceptable.”

In addition, the stricter standards for the Top Safety Pick honors require at least an acceptable performance in that test.

To get onto the Top Safety Pick+ list, vehicles must have “good” headlights. To get onto the Top Safety Pick list, they must have “acceptable” headlights. Most of the vehicles on the list qualify only with optional upgrade packages that have better-functioning headlights.

Insufficient headlights are one key reason why no pickups and many popular SUVs failed to make the list. Since they sit higher than passenger cars, they often don’t project their lighting adequately and can create too much glare, Harkey said.