2016 Honda Civic
Completely redesigned for 2016, the Honda Civic is now bigger, more refined, and more luxurious than it's ever been. It's also safer, with automatic pre-collision braking, lane keeping assistance, and adaptive cruise control available, even in base models.
The IIHS gave the Civic's collision avoidance systems top marks, and the Civic also earned the highest scores in every crash test by the IIHS and NHTSA.
On its new, big Accord-based platform, the Civic also has more rear legroom than almost anything else in the class, and it's a delight to drive with its smooth and responsive turbocharged engine option. It gets an impressive 35 mpg in combined city and highway testing at the EPA with either the turbo or its base engine. The Civic offers all the latest infotainment technology inside, including Apple's CarPlay iPhone integration.
Honda just released a Civic coupe and is coming out with a hatchback later this year. A high-performance Si version is expected to follow.
2016 Volkswagen Golf
If you need the utility of a hatchback and can't wait for the new hatchback version of the Civic, the Golf already offers it, along with one of the biggest back seats in the class. Volkwagens, like many European cars, have long been top performers in crash tests.
The Golf is no exception, with excellent scores in every crash test conducted today. Volkswagen now offers forward collision warning with automatic braking in low-speed traffic. That's less advanced than some cars, but earns the Golf a Top Safety Pick Plus designation among small cars.
The Golf offers more comfortable accommodations than other hatchbacks, whether you need a family car for the city or a safe car for your teenager that can haul all their stuff to the dorm and back. It comes with either two or four doors, and the Golf's new turbocharged 1.8-liter gas engine gives it nearly the performance of the hot-hatch GTI, without the elevated price tag. Either way, there's no better small car to keep your family safe, secure, and comfortable.
2016 Honda Accord
Like its little brother the Civic, the Accord gets Honda's full package of driver assistance technologies for 2016: automatic pre-collision braking, lane keeping assistance, and adaptive cruise control. It's also one of the most comfortable and slick-driving midsize sedans available.
Whether you opt for the smooth and efficient four-cylinder engine, with its relaxed continuously variable transmission and impressive fuel economy (27/37 mpg city/highway), or Honda's silky and potent V6 with its six-speed automatic, the Accord has plenty of space, a smooth ride, and a quiet interior. Its tidy dimensions, responsive handling, and relaxed feel make it one of the easiest midsized sedans to drive and to live with, day in and day out. The latest button-less HondaLink radio can be tedious to use, but it includes smart-phone integration with both Apple's CarPlay and Android Auto.
The IIHS rates the Accord's crash prevention technologies as top notch. It comes with Honda's LaneWatch right-side camera, which appears whenever you use the right-hand turn signal.
2016 Toyota Avalon
Big sedans are underrated when it comes to safety. Their weight gives them a similar advantage to an SUV in a collision with other cars, but without an SUV's inherent proclivity to roll over if it goes off the road and out of control. Among big sedans, the Toyota Avalon rises to the top of the heap.
Its Toyota Safety Sense system includes lane keeping assistance, blind-spot monitoring, automatic high beam control, and automatic pre-collision braking with pedestrian detection.
The Avalon is big and spacious and offers an elegantly finished interior. The big V6 pulls this car effortlessly, or you can choose a hybrid Avalon that returns 40 mpg in combined EPA testing. That's impressive for such a large car.
2016 Hyundai Genesis
The unsung hero of luxury sedans, the latest Hyundai Genesis has all the creature comforts and opulent materials you could ever wish for – only without the showoff badge. It looks sleek, and the driving experience is posh enough to match.
It rates tops in both crash protection and crash prevention, where its driver assistance systems kept it out of both 12-mph and 25-mph tests by the IIHS. Its Tech Package adds haptic feedback that vibrates the steering wheel if you drift out of your lane, active cruise control, and automatic high beams.
Even with only a V6 engine, the Genesis whisks you away from stops athletically, with butter-smooth responses from its standard eight-speed automatic transmission. All-wheel drive is available for those who need it for Northern winters.
Better still, the Genesis is one of the few remaining luxury cars with simple knobs and buttons to control all the features from the dashboard. Many features have redundant controls, so you can figure them out no matter your level of technical proficiency. Try that in a Mercedes!
2016 Mazda CX-5
As much as critics universally love the Mazda CX-5 for its frisky handling and upscale features, we almost skipped it for this family list, because it sometimes wears its sportiness on its muscle-stretched sleeves. However, when it comes to safety ratings, features, and comfort, no other small SUV matches the CX-5's scores. We had to include it.
It's not the only small SUV that gets excellent scores in all the safety tests, but reviewers far preferred the CX-5 to these others. Only the Honda CR-V came close, and its auto-braking system didn't perform quite as well in IIHS testing. Add in the CR-V's distracting HondaLink touch screen and its lack of any blind-spot detection on the left side, and call it the runner up here.
2016 Subaru Outback
Most people consider the Subaru Outback the last of a dying breed of station wagons. It makes more sense to think of it as a better breed of SUV, one that combines all the space and comfort of a midsize SUV with the efficiency of a compact SUV.
As an added bonus, the Outback feels more stable on the highway than almost any SUV. The Outback also has more cargo space than any small SUV, and even more than most midsizers. Its back seat has room to stretch out – even tucking three adults back there won't get you kicked out of the carpool.
The standard four-cylinder engine may not be particularly quick, but it gets 28 mpg in everyday mixed driving. Good luck finding an SUV this size that can match that. If you want more power, the Outback offers a creamy-smooth six-cylinder.
Subaru's EyeSight active safety system gets full points from the IIHS for avoiding accidents. It's optional starting at the second-to-lowest Premium trim level. The Outback even has big windows that make it easy to see other cars outside. How very novel in the 21st century!
2016 Nissan Murano
Long a top-scoring midsize SUV, the Nissan Murano offers all the luxury features of a premium vehicle without the premium price. It also offers all the latest safety, performance, and equipment, including automatic pre-collision braking that gets a Superior score from the IIHS.
Its silky standard V6 engine and continuously variable automatic transmission deliver seamless power. Inside, the Murano is as beautifully finished as any luxury SUV. Front passengers sit in tomb-like silence on NASA-inspired zero-gravity seats, though the light, airy interior never makes you feel like you're sitting in a cave, as other modern SUVs often do. Even the ride and the steering conspire to almost totally isolate you from the world outside, though the handling is plenty secure.
Systems such as blind-spot monitoring and the surround-view camera with moving object detection help offset the constrained view out of the rear windows. Before you get too distracted and have to rely too heavily on automatic braking, the Driver Attention Alert system reminds you to focus back on the road. If there's a downside, it's that most of these features are only available on the leather-clad SL with the Technology Package. Even so, its $40,000 price tag is a lot lower than anything else you could find with so many features, so much space, and so much coddling.
2016 Honda Pilot
Another redesign for 2016, the Honda Pilot is now one of the safest seven- or eight-passenger SUVs on the market, as well as one of the nicest to drive. It offers all of Honda's latest active safety aids, which get high marks from the IIHS.
The new soft-touch interior materials are a huge improvement over the previous Pilot's materials, and Honda's new infotainment system will display your favorite iPhone apps through Apple's CarPlay interface. The Pilot includes live traffic updates on the integrated navigation system, though the screen has no buttons and can be distracting to use.
The Pilot gets the same top crash test scores as the Civic and the Accord, but in a bigger, safer, even more family friendly size. Reviewers found that even adults can sit in the Pilot's third-row seat, a rarity for any car-based SUV.
The IIHS gives the Pilot's automatic pre-collision braking a Superior rating, and the Pilot includes Honda's useful Lane Keeping Assist and Roadway Departure Mitigation systems on most trim levels, along with its passenger-side LaneWatch camera. You can even get driver- and passenger-side blind spot monitoring in top-trim Elite models.
2016 Honda Odyssey
Minivans get no respect. They're generally more comfortable people movers and more capable cargo haulers than the three-row SUVs that have mostly replaced them. The Honda Odyssey is not only the best of the bunch, but perhaps the most comfortable road-trip machine in America.
The low floor and sliding doors make it easier to get in and out than in an SUV, and all three rows of seats have more room to stretch out. The Odyssey has plenty of room for luggage in the well behind its rear seat when you have a full complement of guests. It even offers a built-in vacuum cleaner in back to tidy up after everybody.
The Odyssey offers only basic forward collision warning, not full automatic braking as the Toyota Sienna does, but the Sienna falls down on occupant protection in the key small-offset front crash tests, which the Odyssey aces. Automatic braking is key to stopping accidents before they happen, but sometimes accidents can't be avoided. Having good protection in a front crash could save your life, and that's what everybody really wants for their family.
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Top Ten Safest Cars
No one wants to take a chance with their family's safety on the road. Our list of the 10 safest family cars includes a wide variety of vehicles at different price points. All of them achieve excellent safety ratings in the most current and important crash tests performed by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
Of course, the best way to stay safe is to avoid a crash altogether, and automakers are adding technology that helps cars do just that, including automatic pre-collision warning and auto-braking, lane departure warning, lane-keeping assistance, and even pedestrian detection. The effectiveness of these systems – how many situations they recognize and how quickly they react – sets the safest cars apart from those in the ditch. It's worth noting that these collision avoidance systems are sometimes included in an expensive options package. Where they're available, it's worth buying them.
Remember, too, that larger, heavier cars still survive better in crashes than smaller ones. That means big SUVs and minivans are likely to fare better than small sedans and hatchbacks in a crash (the IIHS doesn't test the heaviest SUVs, like the Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon, so we didn't list them in this slideshow). That's no reason to avoid a small sedan or hatchback. If that's what meets your needs, the ones in this slideshow are the safest you can find.