Top pick:
The 2011 BMW 5 Series sedan earned the top rating in each of the institute’s crash tests, making the car officially one of the 2011 safest cars. With last year's addition of new criteria for roof crush, the test ratings now cover all four of the most common kinds of crashes. By raising the bar on roof performance, which is critical in rollovers, many of last year’s winners no longer qualified as a top pick for car safety. But manufacturers made design changes and introduced new models that more than doubled the number of top pick vehicles. “This award demonstrates that we left no stone unturned in the development of the all-new 2011 5 Series Sedan,” Jim O’Donnell, president of BMW of North America, said in a statement.
