The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety announced its annual list of winners for the Top Safety Pick Award. The list consisted of 66 winning models spread out across 8 different categories:

• Large cars
• Midsize cars
• Small cars
• Minicar
• Minivan
• Large SUVs
• Midsize SUVs
• Small SUVs

Volkswagen models were represented in 4 out of 8 categories. In fact, out of 66 winners Volkswagen secured 9 spots. That represents almost 14% of all vehicles selected to be the safest among 2011 models. It is also worth noting that in the Large SUV category, Volkswagen Touareg was the ONLY winner out of comparable vehicles.

Volkswagen Top Safety Pick Models

1. 2011 Volkswagen Touareg
2. 2011 Volkswagen Tiguan
3. 2011 Volkswagen Golf
4. 2011 Volkswagen GTI
5. 2011 Volkswagen Jetta (Sedan and SportWagen)

This is great news for Volkswagen as this win comes on the heels of a recent Volkswagen recall announcement.

About Top Safety Pick Award

The IIHS is a government-independent agency responsible to safety checks across all vehicles sold in the United States. The agency conducts various crash tests for any new models that hit the market. It releases rankings for each model on its website and also posts an annual Top Safety Pick list.

The IIHS was first established in 1959. It has been funded by auto insurers ever since. IIHS is not associated with National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), government agency responsible for car safety standards.