Ford Motor Company is getting some much-needed positive press today on the back of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s (IIHS) just released “2009 Top Picks awards.” Top picks need to have best in class front, side and rear impact protection and include electronic stability control. Ford (including Volvo) took the model count grand prize with 16 vehicles getting top honors. Honda placed second with 13 vehicles and Chrysler came in dead last with exactly zero models clearing the hurdle. Of course the Ford brand portfolio includes many more vehicles than does Honda’s, so you could argue that Honda is the real winner as a percentage of its vehicles sold. In fact, ALL of Honda’s 2009 North American models made the top pick level except for the S2000 sports car. The redesigned 2009 Fit (with optional stability control) is the first minicar to make the IIHS’ list. Ford’s numbers were pumped up by multiple models of the same car each getting their own gold star. Fusion and Milan, Taurus and Sable, Escape and Mariner … you get the idea. But even with badge engineering magic, GM only managed an eight count including the sisters Enclave, Traverse, Acadia and Outlook. Once again, Ford has trounced its domestic competitors and is in the hunt with the rest of the international market. Likewise, Toyota continues the pattern of mimicking GM with only eight top picks of it’s own. Soon I suppose we will see Toyota, GM and Chrysler executives complaining that the IIHS tests aren’t representative, include selection bias …. or are just plain un-American.
You used ‘it’s’ twice in this post when you meant ‘its’.
‘it’s’ is a contraction of ‘it is’.
‘its’ is the possessive form of ‘it’.
Update: Thanks for fixing that, Justin!
Good for Ford. It’s too bad that they haven’t been able to do a better a job on their successes.
@OzLobo:
Its fixed up their in the post. You’re input is appreciated.
Har har.
Honda is doing so well that something bad has to happen. Maybe Godzilla will crush their headquarters and kill all their engineers.
Key winner for Honda:
Minivans
Honda Odyssey
That one alone will make sales (and not necessarily of Odyssey).
Looks like Ford needs to up their compact game, as everybody and their dog have a winning entry there. Just another example of how badly current Focus needs a serious update.
Ignoring that, it’s good PR and a good piece of information to bring on Dec. 2nd, to grab some much-needed low-interest loans and prevent the other two from getting even a rusty penny.
And to think that just 3 years ago Ford was the least likely company to survive. Incredible.
no_slushbox
Honda is doing so well that something bad has to happen.
maybe that would be the crashing sales of their hideous Acura lineup. :P
i’m happy to see ford’s success in this regard. recently i decided to trade in my rear-ended 2007 accord on a 2009 model. i considered a fusion given the $3,500 rebate at the time, but couldn’t find much to choose from even given at least 5 dealerships in a 10 mile radius. i don’t know if other’s beat me to the punch or if corporate just isn’t sending them many cars. a couple dealerships looked like they were in the midst of a going out of business sale. so i ended up back at honda. my point is, it’s going to take a lot to save this floundering ship.
Ford does deserve credit in this regard. Their quality appears to be improving and safety is obviously a center of excellence. Good job.
Now, GM, Chrysler, and Toyota should be ashamed of themselves…
Kudos to Ford. Must. Keep. Working. Now they just need to bolster the fleet with all desirable models to generate buzz and dealer traffic.
Anybody notice how the GM Lambda quartet are now called “Large SUVs”? Kind of marginalizes the incremental gains they were seeking in image.
OzLobo, thanks for the correction. The irregularities of my native tongue continue to trip me up. Nearly every other possessive uses the apostrophe. Argh.
Toyota continues the pattern of mimicking GM with only eight top picks of it’s own
missed one…
N8iveVA:
Acura’s sales suck because Honda’s are so good. I don’t know why anyone would get any Honda sedan higher than the Civic Si, the Civic is an amazing car.
Giving Honda’s engineering capabilities I’m pretty sure that BMW is paying them a lot of money not to make Acura rear-wheel-drive.
Just goes to show how far we have come in making cars safer. Now the distracted fools who operate them is another matter.
Sounds like it is time for IIHS to raise the bar.
This is becoming Lake Wobegon with all of the “Above Average” 5 star ratings.
They consider the Fit a “minicar”? Apparently they’ve never been to Europe or Japan.
Kudos to Ford and “Wow” to Honda.
Good catch on the GM quadruplets. SAAB 9-3s were two of the others (sedan und convert). Pretty sad.
Toyota’s showing is not impressive, but as they have far fewer models than GM and didn’t need so much badge-engineering to get them it probably is about 3 to 4 times better showing.
Cryslur? Waddayaexpect?
Hope Ford makes it. They are becoming a good well rounded car producer. Mulally should go to congress with big charts showing his companies safety and reliability improvements and flat say “We are doing something”-and let the other two swim if they can.
Bunter
Most of the otherwise-good cars that aren’t nabbing best picks are doing so because of the seat and headrest design (see Toyota and GM for examples). These cars are otherwise (usually) good performers and yes, I agree with the above poster that they need to raise the bar a little.
I don’t like insurance companies, but this is one instance you can probably trust them. Property compensation claims are much cheaper than medical care and ongoing treatment: if they say a car is safe, they’ve got a vested financial interest in doing so.
Good catch on the GM quadruplets. SAAB 9-3s were two of the others (sedan und convert). Pretty sad.
You know what’s sad about that? The 9-3 has been a best pick since it debuted in 2003. And it was the first Epsilon car, suceeded by the Malibu, G6, Aura and Malibu again.
You’d think they’d transfer some of that knowledge at least to the later Epsilons, if not to the rest of the line.
Excellent point psarhjinian, Ford has made good use of the safety engineering talents it acquired by buying Volvo. GM, on the other hand, has absolutely nothing to show for it shameful handling of Saab.