2013 Dodge Dart Leads Latest Top Safety Pick Winners

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) recently put four all-new products through its rigorous testing regimen, and the 2013 Dodge Dart, 2013 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport,* 2013 Lexus ES and 2013 Subaru XV Crosstrek all came through with top scores—and Top Safety Pick Awards.

• The 2013 Dodge Dart—the automaker’s first next-gen 40-mpg compact—boasts 10 standard airbags and “one of the auto industry’s highest content-ratios of high-strength steel” according to its maker, and it just finished its first full month at dealerships by racking up 5,235 sales.
• The 2013 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport is an all-new version of a past Top Safety Pick winner, with brash styling and two-row seating; it also previews the coming 2013 Hyundai Santa Fe, which will debut in a bigger, three-row package. But both feature standard safety measures like Hyundai’s Vehicle Stability Management system.
• Thanks to some notable safety upgrades over the past model, both the 2013 Lexus ES (and Lexus ES Hybrid) make the grade this time around. Certainly helping matters: More airbags than any other vehicle in its class and front seats designed specifically to reduce the chance of whiplash injuries in rear-end collisions.
• With the 2013 Subaru XV Crosstrek joining the honor roll, and the 2013 Subaru BRZ doing so earlier this year, Subaru remains the only automaker in the country to have its entire lineup earn Top Safety Pick Awards.

As a reminder, the IIHS only bestows the Top Safety Pick designation on vehicles that have achieved the highest possible grades in testing for front, rear, side and rollover crash scenarios. The Institute will roll out a new, more advanced frontal-crash evaluation for the 2013 calendar year, and has put a few current vehicles through the new process, but not the four mentioned here.

(*Note: Although many outlets are reporting that it’s the 2013 Hyundai "Santa Fe" that earned a Top Safety Pick Award in this round of evaluations, Autobytel has confirmed with the IIHS that it was the new 2013 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport that won the honor, with the Santa Fe proper scheduled for testing closer to its on sale date early next year.)