Get the safest car, for everyone who rides.

Car safety has advanced in leaps and bounds over time, but safety is one of the areas where vehicle technology is constantly evolving. Whether you’re looking for a new car or browsing used cars for sale, here are the top safety picks on the road.

Lexus RX

The popular midsize luxury SUV is also one of the safest, although its IIHS rating as a top pick depends on choosing the right headlight options. Look for curve-assist and automatic high-beams as options, but keep in mind that its crashworthiness is still top-notch, even without these features.

Toyota Camry

The Camry, the workhorse of the road, is also a tough car to damage in a crash, but it currently only gets its highest rating when you install the pre-collision technology package. That said, it gets all green in the IIHS’ tests, making it one of the best midsize cars on the road.

Joining the Camry, the Altima takes a slight ding for its child safety features, which the IIHS ranked as a “Medium”, the only non-Good rating it gets. The Altima with forward emergency braking and LED headlights gets the best safety rating, and that should be the model you look at.

Honda Ridgeline

The only pickup to get a top safety pick rating of any sort from the IIHS, the Ridgeline comes with an optional Collision Mitigation System that’s a must for the safety conscious, and an LED headlight option that offers superior illumination on the road. If you need a safe pickup, the Ridgeline is your winner.

Hyundai Sonata

The IIHS wasn’t a fan of the Sonata’s headlights, from a safety perspective, ranking them as “poor,” but this Top Safety Pick gets the highest possible rating for front impact safety when you install automatic braking, and the safety gap between it and other midsize cars is narrow enough that you can be comfortable behind the wheel.

Everybody needs safety features, even the family pets.

Chrysler Pacifica

While you’ll need to upgrade the Pacifica to get the top safety rating, the IIHS only granted Top Safety Pick to two minivans overall, and Top Safety Pick Plus to only the Pacifica, with the Kia Sedona coming in behind. And really, if you’re getting a minivan, there’s likely people in the back you want to protect.

Mercedes C-Class

If you want safety and luxury, get a four-door C-Class. While the IIHS was less enamored of the other models, and Mercedes could stand to install better headlights, the four-door with the safety upgrades easily got top safety pick and will likely do better with the 2018 models.

Honda Civic

In small cars, both the four-door and two-door Civic got Top Safety Pick, if they had Honda’s front crash protection package installed. If you’re looking for a car that’s easy to park and light on gas that can handle the potential beatings all small cars face, the Civic seems ideal.

Mini Cooper

Also doing well in the small car category, the Mini Cooper two-door hardtop with crash prevention was an IIHS Top Safety Pick, so if you want a little style in your little car, this will be a safe choice.

Chevy Malibu

In the end, saving gas is about driving smart and knowing how your car works. The less energy you need to get your car rolling, the less you’ll feel it every time you hit the pump. And if that means getting a new car,
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