How Safe Is Your Car? Michigan Big Three Fall Short on 2025 List

If you are of a certain age you easily remember when a car was built with not just a steel frame but a steel body that could plow through anything. I remember learning how to drive in a 1980 Buick LeSabre and because of my grandparents arguing I hit a telephone pole which did absolutely no damage to the car. Had I done that today in a car with plastic bumpers I probably would have totaled it.

While cars today are not made with heavier and more expensive products they do have a lot more safety features than ever before. That's one of the reasons that the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has lowered the amount of vehicles that make it's annual list down from a total of 71 last year to only 48 on the 2025 lists.

There are two lists issued by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, one is called the 'Top Safety Pick Plus' and the other is simply the 'Top Safety Pick'. Institute President David Harkey said that the numbers are down because 'we’re really emphasizing how to protect those occupants in the rear seat of vehicles.'

That being said, Michigan's Big Three automakers were only able to obtain the 'Top Safety Pick Plus' list and only two entries on the 'Top Safety Pick' list.

Making the grade for 'Top Safety Pick Plus' were the Ford Mustang Mache E, Lincoln Nautilus and Rivian R1S. The only American-made duo to make the 'Top Safety Pick' list were the Chevy Traverse and Rivian R1T.