Our fresh selection of the Safest compact cars is a perfect match with current government safety results: According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 10 traditional compact cars have achieved 5-Star Safety Ratings based on the agency’s New Car Assessment Program (NCAP). In that rigorous testing regimen, vehicles are analyzed for passenger protection in frontal crash, side crash and rollover scenarios, and NHTS also keeps track of which entries offer “Recommended Technologies” such as a rearview camera, forward collision warning or lane departure warning.
Seven of these entries also earned Top Safety Pick ratings from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), an organization that is funded by the insurance industry, and the three that didn’t are—in a satisfying example of synchronicity—matched by three Top Safety Picks that didn’t earn 5-Star NHTSA scores (Mitsubishi Lancer, Nissan Sentra and Toyota Prius).
We went with the NHTSA-approved choices mostly because it seemed harder to miss the 5-Star mark than to miss out on the IIHS honor.