Toyota/Lexus has most 2015 vehicles with Top Safety ratings

No automaker has more 2015 models with the Top Safety Pick Plus rating.

The great news for drivers is that most cars now earn the Top Safety Pick rating. This rating by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) was once the hardest safety ranking to achieve. Then IIHS made it even harder. The Institute added a difficult small frontal offset crash and also the requirement that frontal crash prevention be included to reach the highest safety rating in the US. That rating is called the Top Safety Pick+.

Toyota/Lexus was awarded eight Top Safety Pick Plus awards this month. The Lexus vehicles are the CT, RC, and NX. Toyota's models with the TSP+ rating include the Prius V, Prius, Camry, Highlander and Sienna. Although nothing to really brag about anymore, fourToyota, Lexus and Scion vehicles also were rated Top Safety Picks.

This is not the complete list of vehicles made by Toyota/Lexus that will earn these top scores. Some models have not yet been tested. The Institute does not re-test each model each year, but rather it tests those that are of a new generation, or new design.

In an odd twist, the IIHS changed its standards for 2015, so 15 vehicles were demoted to TSP form TSP+. The Accord, Civic, Sonata, Odyssey, Golf, Rogue, Equinox, Terrain, and Volt are among the models that are now ranked lower than they had been.

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