Safest Cars in the Philippines 2016: Our Top Picks!

Consumers have something to rejoice about. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHs), considered the premier auto-safety rater in the US, is implementing stricter standards when testing vehicle safety systems. Aside from the standard crash tests that only measure passenger protection, they have also added accident-avoidance technologies (such as automatic braking) to make chances of avoiding accidents better.

The IIHS uses two kinds of ratings when assessing a car:

Top Safety Pick - a vehicle must earn good ratings in five crashworthiness tests — small overlap front, moderate overlap front, side, roof strength and head restraints. It should also have a basic rating for front crash prevention.

Top Safety Pick Plus - the most coveted rating, it's also a Top Safety Pick but with a more advanced or superior rating for front crash prevention. It also includes other safety features, such as:

• Side airbags: front and rear head curtain airbags and front seat-mounted torso airbags
• Rollover sensor: designed to deploy the side curtain airbags in the event of an impending rollover
• Driver knee airbag: a separate airbag in the lower instrument panel designed to minimize knee injuries in frontal crashes
• Electronic stability control
• Anti-lock brakes
• Programmable daytime running lights

Since the Top Safety Pick Plus is the most coveted of them all, we've decided to make it easy for everyone by giving a rundown of the safest cars 2016 in the Philippines with this accolade:

1. Safest Mini Car - Mini Cooper

The Mini Cooper will always remind us why great things come in small packages. Small and sufficiently safe, it should be given a Hall of Fame award for having so many accolades in the first place. It boasts of a fuel-efficient engine, high degree of personalization and razor sharp handling that keeps you fittingly glued to the road. Now, it even bagged the safest mini car award from the IIHS, gaining advanced ratings in front crash prevention and child seat anchor use. This vehicle introduced its two-door hardtop form in 2014, and has since been adding more safety features along the way.

2. Safest Midsize Luxury Car - Audi A4

Sporty, quiet, and fast, the Audi A4 always makes a great impression on the road. Its interior is understatedly elegant, and the safety features are sublime. IIHS rated it superior in front crash prevention and gave it an advanced score in headlights. The power leather seats have good head restraints as well. And since it’s an Audi, do we have to question its reliability on the road? Definitely not us.

3. Safest Midsize Car - Honda Accord (4-door sedan)

The Honda Accord's luxurious interior, efficient powertrain, and exceptional handling have gotten our nod ever since it was first released, but now that we have learned that it got a superior rating in front crash prevention and advanced ratings in headlights and child seat anchors (for LX model cloth seats), we're definitely sold. We especially like its Collision Mitigation Braking System (CMBS) feature that helps bring your car to a stop when the system determines that an unavoidable collision is going to take place in front of you. Now if only it can do a couple of tricks and uncannily read our body language like our dog…

4. Safest Midsize SUV - Honda Pilot

What do you get when you combine comfort, uber style, a sophisticated interior, and a respectable nod from the IIHS? The Honda Pilot. This car was rated superior in front crash prevention and advanced in child seat anchors (ease of use). We especially love the Honda Sensing, a combination of rear cross-path detection, adaptive cruise control, lane-keeping assist and other safety goodies that keep everyone inside feeling warm and tingly all over.

5. Safest Compact Executive Car – Mercedes-Benz C-Class

For decades, Mercedes-Benz has built a solid reputation as one of the safest car brands in the industry. So safe are these cars in fact, that they often have the lowest rates of injury and fatality. That said, the price range of these cars often keeps them from being rated for safety, but the C-Class stands as an exception. Earning good ratings in all five of the IIHS crashworthiness evaluations, the car also managed to earn an advanced rating in the standard front crash prevention system department. Among the car’s notable safety features are Lane Departure Warning, Night Vision, Auto-Levelling Headlights, and Blind Spot Monitor.

6. Safest Large Luxury Class Car - Hyundai Genesis

The Hyundai Genesis has good ratings in roof strength, head restraints, and side overall evaluation. It also has a superior rating in front crash prevention, and a moderate score in child seat anchors. Personally, we love its remote anti-theft alarm, post collision safety system, night vision feature, and self-leveling headlights. This full-size, rear-wheel-drive, luxury vehicle is so spacious— it's an ideal car for large families (or groups).

7. Safest Small Car - Honda Civic (4-door sedan)

The Honda Civic is not only a good-looking car, it's also extremely safe. It gained a superior rating in front crash prevention from the IIHS, plus advanced ratings for the cloth seats of both its EX and LX models. Its Honda Sensing feature offers safety and driver-assistive technologies that will alert you on the road, and we especially like its Road Departure Mitigation System (RDM), where a small camera can see road markers, alert you if you’re about to leave the road, and take action (when necessary) to help keep you from doing so.

8. Safest Compact Crossover – Hyundai Santa Fe

The safety awards are certainly piling up for this South Korean carmaker, and its minivans and CUVs leading the way. Aside from earning a Top Safety Pick+ from the IIHS, the Santa Fe also received a five-star safety rating from the NHTSA, and this double whammy should be enough to convince you that the Santa Fe is one of the safest cars that you can buy. Safety options for the vehicle include a forward-collision warning system with pedestrian detection and automatic emergency braking, multi-angle reversing camera, automatic high-beam headlights, adaptive cruise control system with stop-and-go functionality, and adaptive headlights that help the driver see corners better at night.

9. Safest Small SUV - Honda CR-V

The CR-V was rated superior in crash avoidance and mitigation, and we're not really surprised. Maybe the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration wouldn't be surprised, either, since it gave this excellent vehicle an overall five-star rating in crashworthiness, an improvement on its previous four-star from last year. So what's changed? Honda has added a lane departure warning, a backup camera, and a forward collision warning to its already impressive features. It also uses the Advanced Compatibility Engineering structure to disperse energy during a front collision crash.

10. Safest Large SUV – Audi Q7

You might be sick and tired of us giving the same boring adjectives again and again, so we're giving you a new one: agile. Truly a great word that was meant to describe the Audi Q7. Offering a choice of three spectacular engines, this seven-seater has a superior crash avoidance and mitigation rating from the IIHS, with notable Sideguard head curtain airbags, lots of LATCHes, and an electromechanical parking brake feature.