In early July, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety published fresh crash-test ratings for nine vehicles. The redesigned 2026 Mazda CX-5 earned the top award available and passed every test. The Cadillac CT5, a sedan that stickers north of $40,000, drew a Poor rating in four separate evaluations.
That is the whole story of where crash safety sits in 2026, compressed into one batch. Price no longer tracks protection. A mainstream small SUV can outscore a luxury sedan by a wide margin, and the reason is not badge prestige but whether the automaker updated the car to meet tests that keep getting harder.
The same week, an ocean away, BMW’s new iX3 aced Euro NCAP’s toughest protocol in years and still finished second to a Chinese electric sedan in the same round.
Five stars, it turns out, is a floor now, not a finish line.
Key Takeaways
- Four winners, five without awards. The mid-2026 IIHS batch gave Top Safety Pick+ to the Mazda CX-5, Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid, BMW X1, and Audi A6. The Audi A3, Cadillac CT5, Lexus IS, Nissan Kicks, and Toyota Tacoma crew cab earned no award.
- The CX-5’s win was a turnaround. The 2026 redesign flipped its front crash-prevention rating from Poor on the 2025 model to Good, and the CX-5 now holds a Top Safety Pick+ that the Toyota RAV4 does not.
- The Cadillac CT5 drew four Poor ratings, including the updated moderate-overlap front test, where its structure and rear-seat restraints fell short.
- The BMW iX3 earned five stars from Euro NCAP under a scoring system the agency rebuilt for 2026, though the Zeekr 7GT outscored it in three of four categories.
- IIHS does not use stars. Its scale runs Good, Acceptable, Marginal, Poor, plus the Top Safety Pick and Top Safety Pick+ awards. Only NHTSA and Euro NCAP rate in stars.
The Nine-Car Batch
IIHS tests in rolling batches, not one big annual reveal. This one covered nine vehicles, and the split was clean. Four earned the higher of the two awards. Five earned nothing. Not one landed in the middle with a plain Top Safety Pick.
| Vehicle | IIHS result |
|---|---|
| 2026 Mazda CX-5 | Top Safety Pick+ |
| 2026 Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid | Top Safety Pick+ |
| 2026 BMW X1 | Top Safety Pick+ |
| 2026 Audi A6 | Top Safety Pick+ |
| Audi A3 | No award |
| Cadillac CT5 | No award |
| Lexus IS | No award |
| Nissan Kicks | No award |
| Toyota Tacoma (crew cab) | No award |
The pattern worth noticing is the shape of the two winning groups. Three of the four award winners are small crossovers and one is a large sedan. Three of the five that missed are sedans.
The award is not about body style. It is about whether the platform was engineered or refreshed against the current test slate, and the older structures are the ones getting caught.
How the Mazda CX-5 Won
The CX-5 arrived redesigned for 2026, and the redesign is where the award came from. The previous CX-5 already crashed well structurally, but it rated Poor in the vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention test on the 2025 model. That is a software and sensor question, not a sheet-metal one.
The 2026 car fixed it.
IIHS now rates the CX-5 Good on small overlap front, Good on the updated moderate overlap front, and Good on the updated side test, plus Good on both front crash-prevention evaluations, the vehicle-to-vehicle test and the pedestrian test. The one asterisk is headlights, which earn Good only on the 2.5 S Premium Plus trim and Acceptable elsewhere.
The competitive detail matters more than the grid. The CX-5’s chief rival, the Toyota RAV4, does not currently hold a 2026 Top Safety Pick+. For a shopper cross-shopping the two most popular names in the small-SUV aisle, that is a real tiebreaker, and it belongs to Mazda right now. Buyers weighing the two can dig into the Mazda CX-5’s reliability record alongside the crash scores.
How the Cadillac CT5 Lost
The CT5 is not an old car on paper. Cadillac redesigned it for the 2025 model year. What it carries is an older underlying structure, and the newer tests found the seams.
IIHS rated the CT5 Poor on the updated moderate overlap front test, Poor on the updated side test, and Poor on vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention. Its one non-Poor crash-avoidance result was an Acceptable on the pedestrian test.
Headlights came in Marginal on the base projectors and Poor on the adaptive units bundled with the upper packages. Seat-belt reminders rated Marginal.
The moderate-overlap result is the one that should give a family pause. That test added a second-row dummy to measure how a back-seat passenger fares, and IIHS found a high risk of head, neck, and chest injury for a rear occupant, tied to how the belt managed the crash. In the side test, the CT5’s B-pillar pushed into the cabin farther than the standard allows.
None of this makes the CT5 dangerous in isolation. It makes it a car engineered to an earlier standard, now being measured against a newer one, and coming up short where the newest requirements bite.
Why the Bar Moved
The reason four cars can ace this slate while five miss is that IIHS raised the requirements, and did it recently. Two changes drive most of the outcomes.
The first is the updated moderate overlap front test. It now places a dummy in the second row and grades rear-passenger protection, not just the driver. Automakers spent decades optimizing the front seat for this crash. The back seat is where the new points, and the new failures, live.
The second is the front crash-prevention standard. To earn Top Safety Pick+, a 2026 vehicle needs a strong result on the updated vehicle-to-vehicle test, which now runs at 31, 37, and 43 mph against three target types including a motorcycle and a semitrailer, plus a Good on the pedestrian-detection test, with the systems standard rather than optional.
That is the exact test the old CX-5 failed and the new one passed.
How to read an IIHS rating. The Institute grades each crash and avoidance test Good, Acceptable, Marginal, or Poor. A vehicle earns Top Safety Pick or the higher Top Safety Pick+ only by clearing a full checklist of those grades. There is no star score. When you see a five-star rating, that is either NHTSA (the US government) or Euro NCAP (Europe), two separate systems that happen to share the star scale.
The BMW iX3 and Europe’s New Rulebook
While IIHS was sorting its nine, Euro NCAP rated the new BMW iX3, the first of BMW’s Neue Klasse electric vehicles, and handed it five stars. The category scores were strong across the board: 73 percent for Safe Driving, 83 percent for Crash Avoidance, 86 percent for Crash Protection, and 95 percent for Post Crash Safety, which the agency called outstanding.
Those four category names are new.
Euro NCAP rebuilt its scoring for 2026, its biggest revision in more than a decade, retiring the familiar Adult Occupant, Child Occupant, Vulnerable Road User, and Safety Assist boxes in favor of a framework that follows the full sequence of a crash, from avoiding it to surviving the aftermath. Anyone who remembers reading Euro NCAP results as four occupant percentages is looking at a different scorecard now.
The iX3’s result came with standout engineering. Its pop-out door handles kept working after every crash test, backed by a mechanical release so the doors open even if every electrical system is dead. The high-voltage battery disconnected itself on impact. In an asymmetric frontal test, the car earned maximum points for protecting a child dummy in the rear seat, the exact area where the Cadillac struggled.
Then the caveat. In the same batch, the Zeekr 7GT, a Chinese electric sedan, posted higher numbers in three of the four categories and matched the iX3 on the fourth. Both cars wear five stars. Only one topped the round.
The headline rating hides a ranking underneath it, which is worth remembering the next time a five-star badge does the talking in an ad.
One more thing for American readers. The iX3’s result is a European test on a car that reaches US roads later, and Euro NCAP is not a US rating body. NHTSA and IIHS will rate the US-market iX3 on their own terms, and the equipment and calibration that earned those crash-avoidance points in Europe may not carry over identically. Treat the five stars as a strong preview, not a window sticker.
Bottom Line
The mid-2026 safety batch says two things clearly. First, a redesigned mainstream vehicle now beats an older luxury one on protection, because the tests reward recent engineering over prestige, and the Mazda CX-5’s jump from a Poor front-crash-prevention rating to a Top Safety Pick+ is the cleanest example. The Cadillac CT5’s four Poor ratings are the other side of the same coin, a 2025-redesigned car on an older structure meeting a newer rear-seat test and losing. Second, a five-star rating is no longer the end of the conversation. The BMW iX3 earned five stars under Euro NCAP’s rebuilt 2026 rules and still got outscored by a Zeekr in the same session. For shoppers, the practical move is to read past the award to the individual test grades, especially the updated moderate-overlap and front-crash-prevention results, and to remember that a European five-star score is a preview of the US car, not a rating of it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which cars earned Top Safety Pick+ in the mid-2026 IIHS tests?
Four vehicles earned the higher award in this batch: the 2026 Mazda CX-5, the 2026 Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid, the 2026 BMW X1, and the 2026 Audi A6. Five others, the Audi A3, Cadillac CT5, Lexus IS, Nissan Kicks, and Toyota Tacoma crew cab, earned no award.
Why did the Mazda CX-5 win a Top Safety Pick+?
The redesigned 2026 CX-5 earned Good ratings across the crash tests and, critically, improved its vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention from Poor on the 2025 model to Good. It also rated Good on pedestrian crash prevention. Headlights earn Good only on the 2.5 S Premium Plus trim and Acceptable on others. The CX-5 now holds a Top Safety Pick+ that the Toyota RAV4 does not currently have.
Why did the Cadillac CT5 fail the IIHS tests?
The CT5 drew Poor ratings on the updated moderate overlap front test, the updated side test, and vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention, plus an Acceptable on pedestrian prevention. Testers found a high injury risk for rear-seat passengers in the moderate overlap crash and noted the B-pillar intruded into the cabin during the side test. Cadillac redesigned the CT5 for 2025 but kept an older underlying structure.
Does IIHS use star ratings?
No. IIHS rates each test Good, Acceptable, Marginal, or Poor, and awards Top Safety Pick or Top Safety Pick+ to vehicles that meet a full checklist of those grades. Star ratings come from two different systems: NHTSA in the United States and Euro NCAP in Europe.
What changed in the 2026 IIHS criteria?
Two updates drove most of the results. The moderate overlap front test now includes a second-row dummy and grades rear-passenger protection. And Top Safety Pick+ now requires a strong result on the updated vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention test, which runs at 31, 37, and 43 mph against a car, a motorcycle, and a semitrailer, plus a Good on pedestrian detection, with the systems standard equipment.
What score did the BMW iX3 get from Euro NCAP?
The BMW iX3 earned five stars. Under Euro NCAP’s rebuilt 2026 categories it scored 73 percent for Safe Driving, 83 percent for Crash Avoidance, 86 percent for Crash Protection, and 95 percent for Post Crash Safety. It is the first of BMW’s Neue Klasse electric vehicles to be rated.
Did anything beat the BMW iX3 in the same Euro NCAP round?
Yes. The Zeekr 7GT, a Chinese electric sedan, scored higher than the iX3 in three of the four categories (79 percent Safe Driving, 89 percent Crash Avoidance, 93 percent Crash Protection) and matched it at 95 percent on Post Crash Safety. Both cars earned five stars, but the Zeekr topped the round.
Does the BMW iX3’s Euro NCAP rating apply to the US version?
Not directly. Euro NCAP is a European test, and the iX3 reaches the US later. NHTSA and IIHS will rate the US-market car separately, and the equipment and driver-assist calibration that earned points in Europe may differ in the US. The five-star result is a strong preview rather than a US safety rating.
Is the Mazda CX-5 safer than the Toyota RAV4 now?
By the current IIHS awards, the 2026 CX-5 holds a Top Safety Pick+ and the RAV4 does not, which gives the Mazda the edge on the Institute’s checklist right now. Ratings apply to specific model years, trims, and build dates, so shoppers should confirm the exact configuration and check whether Toyota updates the RAV4 to close the gap.
Michael Kahn
Michael Kahn is the writer, photographer, and publisher behind The Weekly Driver. He cares about how cars drive and what they're like to own. He covers automobile industry news, car shows and events, and new car reviews. The reviews come from behind the wheel: day trips that favor back routes, treating a good meal as half the reason to go. He directs and produces the visual media, matching each car to a setting and mood that fit it. When he's not reviewing new cars, Michael races paddleboards, camels, and ostriches, along with the occasional exotic car on the racetrack, and has driven in every state and country visited.
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