When considering a new vehicle purchase, nothing is more important than safety.
Car and Driver magazine is reporting that the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety (IIHS), the leading authority for rating vehicles for crash avoidance and crashworthiness, has given four Hyundai models their highest safety rating.
To earn the IIHS’ highest honor–the Top Safety Pick+ designation–vehicles have to earn a Good rating in all crash tests and pass muster on other important measures, like headlights and vehicle-to-pedestrian front-crash prevention tests.
But Car and Driver didn’t stop there. They write:
“Active safety tech required for crash avoidance and mitigation tests includes forward collision warning, pedestrian detection, automated emergency braking, lane-departure warning, and lane-keeping assist. Many of the Top Safety Pick+ winners also feature additional active safety tech.
“With those criteria, 50 crossovers and SUVs received IIHS’s highest honors for 2025 and 2026. Many were also given five-star crash-test ratings from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). To narrow down this list for shoppers, we’ve only listed SUVs that have earned a Car and Driver rating of 8.5 or higher, meaning that we would recommend all of the vehicles here as good buys in their respective segments.”
Here are the 2025 and 2026 Hyundai models that made the cut for safety and overall rating from Car and Driver:
Hyundai Santa Fe
Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 9
Hyundai Kona