| Every year, the Insurance Institute for | | | | GOLD: Honda Civic |
| Highway Safety (IIHS) rates passenger | | | | Minivans |
| vehicles' ability to hold up in a crash | | | | No vehicles earned a gold or silver |
| as good, acceptable, marginal or poor. | | | | rating, most because their seat/head |
| They break cars down into four size | | | | restraints only earned marginal or poor |
| categories: large, midsize, small and | | | | ratings. |
| minivans, and base their ratings on | | | | Least-Safe Vehicles of 2006 |
| front, side and rear safety tests. | | | | The following vehicles earned "poor" |
| The vehicles that earn good ratings in | | | | ratings on both the side and rear safety |
| each test category (front, side and | | | | tests that the IIHS conducted. |
| rear) are given gold ratings, while | | | | Side impact tests measure how well a |
| those that earn good front and side | | | | passenger is protected when a vehicle is |
| ratings and acceptable rear ratings are | | | | hit in the side by an SUV or pickup. |
| given a silver rating. | | | | The rear safety tests measure how well a |
| Test results are only comparable among | | | | seat/head restraint protects a passenger |
| vehicles of similar weight, as larger | | | | against neck injury in rear impacts at |
| vehicles are generally more protective | | | | low to moderate speeds. |
| than smaller ones. | | | | Hyundai Elantra |
| IIHS Top Safety Picks for 2006 | | | | Kia Optima |
| Large | | | | Mazda6 |
| GOLD: Ford Five Hundred with optional | | | | Nissan Sentra |
| side airbags | | | | Suzuki Forenza |
| GOLD: Mercury Montego with optional side | | | | Toyota Corolla |
| airbags | | | | Mazda MPV without optional side airbags |
| SILVER: Audi A6 | | | | Note: The National Highway Traffic |
| Midsize | | | | Safety Administration (NHTSA) also |
| GOLD: Saab 9-3 | | | | conducts safety tests for frontal and |
| GOLD: Subaru Legacy | | | | side impacts (not rear). However, their |
| SILVER: Audi A3 | | | | rankings are based on a different scale |
| SILVER: Audi A4 | | | | (one to five stars) and test for |
| SILVER: Chevrolet Malibu with optional | | | | different things than the IIHS tests. |
| side airbags | | | | When the same two cars are compared |
| SILVER: Volkswagen Jetta | | | | using both IIHS ratings and NHTSA |
| SILVER: Volkswagen Passat | | | | ratings, the ratings are often |
| Small | | | | contradictory. |