14) Honda
Avg USN Safety Score: 9.48/10 | Avg USN Overall Score: 8.02/10
Honda’s lineup includes a wide assortment of vehicles ranging from the subcompact Fit to the three-row midsize Pilot SUV, along with virtually every other vehicle type in between. The Japanese automaker also offers a minivan and a compact pickup truck.
Honda has been a leader in safety technology for many years. From its signature LaneWatch blind spot camera to its comprehensive Honda Sensing suite of advanced driver assistance aids, the brand has all bases covered.
The Sensing suite includes features like lane keep assist, collision mitigation braking, adaptive cruise control, road departure mitigation, and traffic sign recognition. It’s standard on many Honda models and available on most others by stepping up one trim level from the base.
Honda’s lineup has a history of positive crash test ratings from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and a long list of Top Safety Pick designations from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). The 2019 Honda Insight was designated as a Top Safety Pick+ by the IIHS.
13) Alfa Romeo
Avg USN Safety Score: 9.50/10 | Avg USN Overall Score: 8.02/10
Alfa Romeo’s small lineup consists of just three models: the 4C, Giulia, and Stelvio. The 4C is a luxury sports car that’s not necessarily designed with safety as a top priority. It hasn’t been crash tested by the NHTSA or IIHS and it doesn’t offer any active safety features, aside from rear parking sensors.
The luxury small Giulia earns outstanding safety ratings from the IIHS, but it hasn’t been evaluated by the NHTSA. It includes rear parking sensors, forward collision warning, and automatic emergency braking as standard. Other safety systems are available, including blind spot monitoring, lane departure warning, rear cross traffic alert, automatic high-beam headlights, front parking sensors, and adaptive cruise control.
The Stelvio luxury compact SUV offers a similar selection of safety aids, though only rear parking sensors come standard. It hasn’t been crash tested by the NHTSA or IIHS.
12) Kia
Avg USN Safety Score: 9.51/10 | Avg USN Overall Score: 8.02/10
In the past, Kia's vehicles had a reputation for being low-quality and feature-frugal. While today’s Kias are certainly budget-friendly, they have a proven track record for safety, and many offer a host of advanced driver assistance technologies.
Kia’s lineup ranges from the subcompact Rio to the all-new Telluride midsize three-row SUV. Kia received five Top Safety Pick designations and seven Top Safety Pick+ designations from the IIHS. That’s a substantial feat when considering it’s the vast majority of automaker’s lineup.
Some Kia models include several safety systems as standard. For example, the 2020 Kia Forte and Sportage come standard with features like lane departure warning, lane keep assist, a driver attention monitor, forward collision warning, and automatic emergency braking. The Telluride expands on this list by adding standard safe exit assist and a blind spot collision avoidance system.
11) BMW
Avg USN Safety Score: 9.53/10 | Avg USN Overall Score: 8.02/10
BMW not only makes cars that perform incredibly well and have eye-catching styling and opulent interiors, but it also continues to make notable improvements to its high-tech safety systems. In fact, while BMW’s semi-autonomous technology is not yet ready to chauffeur you around, it can drive itself in certain conditions.
BMW’s adaptive cruise control system features stop-and-go capability. Meanwhile, its lane keep assist, lane change assist, active lane-centering, steering and lane guiding assist, and side collision avoidance features will work to keep your car where it needs to be, and in some cases, you don’t even need to have your hands on the steering wheel (though we recommend that you do). Its forward collision warning system can even detect pedestrians and cyclists. Not to mention BMW offers features that recognize road signs and allow your car to park itself.
Many of the above features come standard in new BMW vehicles, including the 5 Series, 7 Series, X3, and X4. Other vehicles like the 8 Series and X5 also include BMW’s Active Driving Assistant as standard.
The IIHS awarded BMW’s 3 Series, 5 Series, X3, and X5 with Top Safety Pick+ designations. The X2 is a Top Safety Pick.
10) Audi
Avg USN Safety Score: 9.56/10 | Avg USN Overall Score: 8.02/10
Like BMW, Audi has accelerated its focus on rolling out a multitude of advanced safety features. Despite the German automaker’s large and diverse lineup, it makes sought-after active safety features like automatic emergency braking standard on almost every vehicle. Pedestrian detection is also standard across most of Audi’s lineup.
Audi offers several high-tech safety systems, including night vision assist, active lane assist, parking assist, and adaptive cruise control with stop-and-go and traffic jam assist.
According to the IIHS, the A3, A4, A7, and Q8 are Top Safety Picks. The organization chose the A6, Q3, and e-tron as Top Safety Pick+ award winners.
9) Hyundai
Avg USN Safety Score: 9.63/10 | Avg USN Overall Score: 8.02/10
Every vehicle in Hyundai’s lineup received either a Top Safety Pick or Top Safety Pick+ designation from the IIHS. This is a major achievement since, much like Kia, the brand was considered a budget automaker not long ago.
The Accent, Hyundai’s most inexpensive offering, offers available forward collision warning and automatic emergency braking, which can’t be said about some competing subcompact cars. While the Hyundai Kona subcompact crossover includes forward collision warning, lane keep assist, and a driver attention monitor as standard. Larger SUVs like the Santa Fe and Palisade add adaptive cruise control, automatic emergency braking, and pedestrian detection to their list of standard safety aids.
8) Acura
Avg USN Safety Score: 9.64/10 | Avg USN Overall Score: 8.02/10
Much like its parent company, Honda, Acura offers a full suite of advanced driver assistance features. It’s called AcuraWatch and includes automatic high-beam headlights, lane keep assist, forward collision warning, automatic emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, and a road departure mitigation system. The suite comes standard on the ILX, RLX, TLX, RDX, and MDX. However, the NSX is light on standard safety aids, which is common among high-end luxury sports cars.
All of Acura’s vehicles, aside from the untested NSX, received high marks in crash tests, but only the RDX earned an award from the IIHS. It was named a Top Safety Pick+.
7) Lincoln
Avg USN Safety Score: 9.65/10 | Avg USN Overall Score: 8.02/10
Lincoln has made recent and notable strides to improve its overall reputation. This is all thanks to the brand discontinuing aging models, bringing new vehicles to market, and adding to its list of standard and available active safety technologies.
Lincoln’s comprehensive safety suite, coined Co-Pilot360, includes features like blind spot monitoring, rear cross traffic alert, forward collision warning, automatic emergency braking, pedestrian detection, lane departure warning, lane keep assist, and automatic high beams. It comes standard on the Aviator, Continental, Corsair, MKZ, Nautilus, and Navigator. However, features vary slightly by vehicle and model year.
Lincoln also offers other advanced safety aids, such as adaptive cruise control, evasive steering assist, active park assist plus, and reverse brake assist, which are part of its available CoPilot360 Plus suite.
According to the IIHS, the Lincoln Corsair earned a Top Safety Pick award and the Continental was designated as a Top Safety Pick+.
6) Subaru
Avg USN Safety Score: 9.69/10 | Avg USN Overall Score: 8.02/10
For many people, Subaru likely comes to mind when considering cars with the utmost safety. It comes as no surprise that its lineup received an impressive 10 IIHS Top Safety Pick+ awards. All-wheel drive comes standard on nearly every vehicle in Subaru’s growing lineup. In addition, its EyeSight safety suite is available across its lineup. However, it’s important to note that the BRZ sports car doesn’t offer all-wheel drive or the safety suite, but that’s common among similar vehicles.
Subaru’s EyeSight includes features like lane departure and sway warning, pre-collision throttle management, forward automatic emergency braking, and adaptive cruise control. It comes standard on many Subaru vehicles, including the Ascent, Forester, Crosstrek Hybrid, Legacy, and Outback.
Several other advanced safety features are available, such as blind spot monitoring, rear cross traffic alert, lane keep assist, reverse automatic emergency braking, a rear-seat reminder, a head-up display, lane change assist, rain-sensing windshield wipers, and automatic high beams. Some Subaru vehicles come standard with a few of these features in addition to the EyeSight suite.
4) Mercedes-Benz (tie)
Avg USN Safety Score: 9.78/10 | Avg USN Overall Score: 8.02/10
Much like other German automakers, including BMW and Audi, Mercedes-Benz is a front-runner when it comes to semi-autonomous systems. In fact, Mercedes was one of the first brands to bring such technology to market. However, early on, most advanced driver-assist technologies were reserved for the priciest models as expensive upgrades.
Today, many Mercedes’ vehicles come standard with an increasing number of active safety features, and some even include semi-autonomous aids. Features like forward collision warning, automatic emergency braking, and pedestrian detection come standard across Mercedes’ lineup. Even the AMG-GT comes packed with safety systems, which is uncommon among similar luxury sports cars.
Mercedes’ other notable safety features include crosswind assist, rain-sensing windshield wipers, a driver condition monitor, automatic park assist, lane change assist, speed limit assist, traffic sign recognition, night vision assist, and a head-up display.
Mercedes was the winner of five recent IIHS Top Safety Pick+ awards. Keep in mind that the most expensive, high-end luxury cars typically don’t undergo crash testing.
4) Mazda (tie)
Avg USN Safety Score: 9.78/10 | Avg USN Overall Score: 8.02/10
While Mazda is widely known as a brand that produces reasonably priced cars that offer a dynamic driving experience, it has focused more recent efforts on offering luxury-grade accommodations and a competitive assortment of advanced driver assistance technologies.
Mazda’s lineup consists of seven vehicles, with one model that’s brand-new for the 2020 model year: the Mazda CX-30 subcompact crossover. Aside from the new CX-30 and the MX-5 Miata, which haven’t undergone crash testing, all Mazda vehicles earned either Top Safety Pick or Top Safety Pick+ awards from the IIHS.
Blind spot monitoring, rear cross traffic alert, and low-speed automatic braking are standard across most of Mazda’s lineup, and some vehicles have additional safety aids as standard as well. The Japanese automaker also offers more advanced systems, including lane keep assist, pedestrian detection, adaptive cruise control, automatic high-beam headlights, a driver monitoring system, rain-sensing windshield wipers, a head-up display, and traffic sign recognition. Several of these come standard on the Mazda3, Mazda6, and all-new CX-30.
3) Tesla
Avg USN Safety Score: 9.80/10 | Avg USN Overall Score: 8.02/10
Tesla is an outlier when it comes to standard safety technology, camera systems, and semi-autonomous driving features. All of its new vehicles come equipped with a whole suite of cameras and the hardware necessary for eventual full self-driving capability. In the meantime, the cameras provide a built-in dashcam system, a Sentry Mode feature that “watches” the car and records video, and Tesla Autopilot, which can drive the cars with minimal human interaction in certain situations. The Autopilot system will even navigate on its own, enter and exit the freeway, and allow you to summon the vehicle in a parking lot.
Tesla’s current lineup consists of three vehicles: the Model 3, Model S, and Model X. Aside from the base Model 3 Standard Range, all Tesla’s vehicles come equipped with most of the above features, as well as automatic emergency braking, pedestrian detection, blind spot monitoring, side collision avoidance, and more. The IIHS named the Model 3 a Top Safety Pick+.
All three Tesla vehicles received perfect five-star ratings from the NHTSA. This means the Model X is the first SUV to receive a perfect rating from the NHTSA, due to receiving five stars in the rollover test. Its heavy battery and low center of gravity make it extremely difficult to roll over, which can’t be said about any other SUV on the market today.
2) Volvo
Avg USN Safety Score: 9.90/10 | Avg USN Overall Score: 8.02/10
Volvo has been a champion in automotive safety for many years. In fact, it was the first automaker to center most of its marketing and advertisements around its cars’ superior structural integrity and exceptional safety.
Volvo’s small lineup consists of two sedans, two wagons, and three SUVs. All three Volvo crossovers earned awards from the IIHS, with the XC40 securing a Top Safety Pick+ designation. The S60 received the top award as well, and the S90 is a Top Safety Pick. The V60 and V90 wagons haven’t been crash tested.
The Swedish automaker’s Safe City system relies on cameras and sensors to help its vehicles avoid collisions. Volvo’s Steering Support makes corrections to steering and works together with the cars’ cameras and sensors to help mitigate potential issues. Some variation of these features comes standard on all Volvo vehicles. Traffic sign recognition, automatic high-beam headlights, driver drowsiness monitoring, adaptive cruise control, a head-up display, and other systems are also standard on some Volvo vehicles and available on others.
Volvo also offers the Pilot Assist semi-autonomous driving system, which comes standard on the XC90 and V90. It’s available on most vehicles in the automaker’s lineup.
1) Genesis
Avg USN Safety Score: 10/10 | Avg USN Overall Score: 8.02/10
Genesis – Hyundai’s relatively new luxury division – is our safest car brand, based on U.S. News safety scores. The brand earns a perfect 10 for safety since all three Genesis vehicles, the G70, G80, and G90, received top-notch crash test ratings. Of course, Genesis’ smaller lineup certainly makes it easier to achieve the win here, but that doesn’t take away from the impressive safety of its cars.
The IIHS designated Genesis’ entire lineup as Top Safety Pick+ award winners. The NHTSA hasn’t tested the G70 or G90, but it gave the G80 a perfect five-star rating.
All Genesis models come with a notable assortment of standard active safety systems, including automatic emergency braking, pedestrian detection, adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning, lane keep assist, blind spot monitoring, rear cross traffic alert, driver attention monitoring, and automatic high-beam headlights.
Other safety aids are available, such as a head-up display, adaptive headlights, rain-sensing windshield wipers, a surround-view parking camera system, and front and rear parking sensors.
More Shopping Tools From U.S. News & World Report
Which brand will you choose? You can’t really go wrong with any of the brands on our list, especially if you prioritize safety as much as these automakers do. Visit our new car rankings to do more research on individual models and see how cars from these brands compare. Once you’ve made some choices, check out our new car deals page to peruse a long list of current manufacturer-sponsored incentives.
When you’re ready to move forward, be sure to use our Best Price Program. Shoppers who have used it in the past saved an average of over $3,000 off their new car.
14 Safest Car Brands of 2020
- Honda
- Alfa Romeo
- Kia
- BMW
- Audi
- Hyundai
- Acura
- Lincoln
- Subaru
- Mercedes-Benz
- Mazda
- Tesla
- Volvo
- Genesis
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These Automakers Put Safety First
Today’s cars are safer than ever, and improvements are ongoing. However, when shopping for a new car, most people are sure to notice the brilliant touch-screen interfaces, heated seats, interior embellishments, fancy digital instrument gauges, power liftgates, and remote start before they have any comprehension of the car’s safety features.
All the above niceties, which used to be reserved for expensive luxury vehicles or range-topping trim levels, are increasingly common in many new cars. You’ll even find some of these features in smaller, less expensive models, and it’s not uncommon for automakers to include some of them in base trims.
With that said, similar advancements have occurred when it comes to active safety aids. It wasn’t long ago that features like automatic emergency braking, lane keep assist, and adaptive cruise control were only available in expensive cars’ upper trims. Now, many budget-friendly vehicles come standard with a full suite of advanced driver assistance systems.
With each new model year, most automakers increase the number of standard safety features in their vehicles and offer more advanced safety technologies as options. In addition, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) adds more difficult crash tests and requires cars to have certain safety aids in order to receive the top awards. All of this leads to much safer vehicles and provides car shoppers with valuable peace of mind.
Keep reading to learn about the safest car brands for the 2020 model year, ranked by average safety score.