IIHS, Consumer Reports releases list of safest vehicles for teen drivers

PITTSBURGH — The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) and Consumer Reports released a list of 58 used vehicles ranging from $5,800-$19,900 and 22 new vehicles that are among the safest for teen drivers.

All recommended used vehicles have a good or acceptable rating in the IIHS driver-side small overlap test, in addition to good ratings in four other IIHS tests and strong marks for braking, handling and reliability from Consumer Reports.

The 22 recommended 2024 models are all winners of the 2024 IIHS Top Safety Pick or Top Safety Pick+. That means they all offer state-of-the-art crash protection and crash avoidance.

Rebecca Weast is a Research Scientist for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). She says all of the vehicles on the list meet the Goldilocks principle.

“We try to avoid putting kids in things that are too small or too large,” Weast says. “We don’t want them in those very large SUVs. The sweet spot is mid-sized car and mid-sized SUV.”

The best choices for used vehicles fall into several categories.

Small Cars:

• Toyota Corolla sedan (2017 or newer) or hatchback (2019)
• Toyota Prius (2017 or newer)

Midsize Cars:

• Toyota Camry (2018 or newer)
• Volvo S60 (2017, 2021)

Large Car:

• Toyota Avalon (2017 or newer)

Small SUVs:

• Chevrolet Equinox (2020, 2023)
• Kia Sportage (2020 or newer)

Midsize SUVs:

• Volvo XC60 (2017)
• Hyundai Santa Fe (2019, 2020, 2023)

Minivan:

• Toyota Sienna (2018-2020)

The best choices for new vehicles include the following:

Small Cars:

• Subaru Impreza
• Mazda 3 sedan or hatchback

Midsize Cars:

• Toyota Camry
• Honda Accord

Small SUVs:

• Mazda CX-30
• Kia Sportage

Midsize SUVs:

• Subaru Ascent
• Kia Telluride

Minivan

• Honda Odyssey

Pickup:

• Hyundai Santa Cruz

Weast says there are more affordable cars, including used ones on the market with safety features that are important for teens.

“Now everything on our list has automatic stability control,” Weast says. “The things that are available used, below the same price point that we’ve always used to set the criteria for, they’re just getting safer.”

That also includes automatic emergency braking. It’s not just found in new cars. You can find the feature on used vehicles, under $20,000.

“Front crash prevention systems like automatic emergency braking are really good for teens and they help to avoid rear-end crashes or mitigate some crashes so they’re not as severe,” Weast added.

Here’s a full list of all of the cars included:

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