It’s no accident cars are getting safer, increasingly new vehicles are being equipped with side airbags to protect the driver and passengers from head injuries. Electronic stability control help reduce skid and rollovers but insurance industry crash tests reveal that some cars are safer than others.

Rating just out, named 13 vehicles as top safety pick for 2007.

The Audi A6 wins for large car for side, rear and front impact crash. Saab 9-3, Subraru Legacy, and Audi A4, are all top for midsize vehicles. These vehicles have good crash test ratings in addition they have electronic stability control to help drivers from getting into crash.

For 2007 minivan top safety pick goes to Hundai Entourage and Kia Sedona. Along with seven sports utility vehicles.

The Mercedes M Class and the Volvo XC90 get the highest rating for large SUVs.

Among midsize competitors are Accra RDX, Honda Pilot, and Subaru B9 Tribeca are in top honors. The Honda CRV and the Subaru Forester are rated the safest vehicle for small SUVs class.

For carmakers, these top marks will likely translate to higher sales. Consumers are use to shop for horsepower, sound system and styling. Now they are looking into more on crash tests and safety ratings.

Automakers recognize that consumers are paying attention to the safety ratings to protect their family when they buy a new car. So, now we are seeing more new cars improving safety each year and that both consumer and automakers must make that a goal.

From convertible, to pickup trucks, The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety put vehicles to the test rating on how they do during font, side, and rear crashes.

One of thing that is important from this result is that the consumers are shopping for new vehicles that are safe and as well as transportation. Now the Institute is out with its list of the 2008 top safety pick.

There are more top safety picks this year, 34 versus 13 at the beginning of 2007. Basically, the automakers are making safer cars because the consumers are demanding more safer cars.

Top safest cars for 2008:

1. Ford Taurus
2. Mercury Sable
3. Volvo S80
4. Volvo C70
5. Ford edge
6. Ford Taurus X
7. Lincoln MKX
8. Volvo XC90
9. Honda Accord
10. Honda Odyssey
11. Accra MDX
12. Accra RDX
13. Honda pilot
14. Honda CR-V
15. Honda element

To be on the list of the top safest cars, the vehicle has to have good rating on the front, side, and rear impact crash test.

If you are looking for a safe SUV, The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says the BMW X5 is one of the top pick. A midsized car is the Saab 9-3, in the minivan the Kia Sedona, and for the large pickup is the Toyota Tundra.

All of these cars have one thing in common, electronic stability control. It is a safety device that kicked in to keep cars from spinning out of control or roll over.

If you compare the real-world data for vehicles with or without electronic stability control. More than half are likely of a single vehicle fatal crash and an even larger reduction of crashes resulting from rollovers from 75% to 80%.

The institute says that one thing is for sure, it has seen major improvement in vehicle safety features.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety said that it would have added 23 more cars added to the safety list if the manufacturer had improved the seats and head restraints.

This year there were some big winners and some surprising losers. To come up with 2010 safest cars, the Insurance Institute employed font, side, rear and for the first-time rollover crash tests. Each year in the US there are about 25,000 to 35,000 people who die in car accidents and a little over 9000 of those are rollover crashes.

Subaru stand out to be the only manufacturer to have top ratings for all four crash tests. In every vehicle class it competes. In all 27 vehicles got top ratings, including multiple models from Volvo and the German automaker Volkswagen.

Who didn’t make the grade? Toyota, the world’s leading auto maker with current sales. Then there were Mazda and Mitsubishi both earn top safety mark in 2009 but did not qualify in 2010.

The testers said if your vehicle didn’t make the safety list, that does not mean it is unsafe. Every vehicle out there meets minimum federal safety standard. This study does not say that the vehicle that are not on this list are unsafe, but what this list tells you is that there are auto manufacturers out there doing better job than others when it comes to safety.

The Insurance Institute of Highway Safety says that each time a new criteria like the rollover test is introduced. It takes time for the auto manufacture to design and catch up. However, most would catch up to that safety standard by 2011.