Subaru a safe bet

Nov 24 2009 Maurice Glover

Subaru a safe bet

SUBARU cars have been judged to be among the safest on the road by a new study in crash protection.

Researchers from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in America who carried out a series of stringent frontal, side, rear and rollover crash tests on a wide variety of vehicles found Subaru was the only manufacturer to warrant its top safety award for every model.

The Japanese firm outperformed models entered by Volvo, Volkswagen, Audi, Honda and Ford to carry off the Top Safety Pick title.

Only vehicles with roofs more than twice as strong as the current minimum standard and fitted with electronic stability programme equipment were eligible for the tests.

'With the addition of our new roof strength evaluation, our crash test results now cover all four of the most common kinds of crashes,' said Institute President, Adrian Lund.

'Consumers can use this list to identify the vehicles that are on the top rung for safety. Cars that win our award feature designs that go far beyond minimum federal safety standards.'

Subaru won top ratings with the Legacy and Outback in the midsize car group, the Impreza in the small car category; the Forester in the small SUV section and the Tribeca in the midsize SUV class.