The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has just announced that a total of three new Toyota vehicles have been given Top Safety Pick awards. Both the 2011 Toyota Avalon and 2011 Toyota Sienna were awarded the institute’s highest ratings in front, side, rollover and rear crash tests. The 2010 Lexus RX also nabbed a Top Safety Pick nod. All of the vehicles come with electronic stability control as standard equipment – another parameter for receiving the award.
Toyota’s Sienna earns the honor of being the first minivan to receive the Top Safety Pick since the IIHS added rollover data to its list of crash criteria in 2010. The news is likely to come as music to the ears of Toyota engineers and dealers, both of which have had to stand by and watch their brand’s quality and safety reputation erode under a hail of recalls.