Subaru, along with Ford and Volkswagen are the new leaders in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) top safety picks for 2009. The IIHS awarded its “top safety pick” this week to 19 passenger cars and eight sport utility vehicles for the 2010 model year. The institute substantially reduced the number of awards compared with 2009, because of tougher requirements for roof strength. The awards given to Subaru only provide more proof that the automaker leads the insurance list in safest new vehicles.

Subaru recorded winners with the Subaru Legacy, Outback and Impreza cars and Tribeca and Forester SUVs. Subaru was the only automaker with an IIHS winner in all four vehicle classes in which it competes. The automaker, which has bucked the brutal U.S. sales market with a 13 percent increase during the first 10 months of 2009, attributed its safety success to a unique engine design that sits low in the vehicle chassis and moves down and under occupants in a frontal collision. Tom Doll, executive vice president and COO of Subaru of America, said the awards were a “tribute to the engineering that goes into Subaru products.”

The awards are based on the best front, side and rear crash tests based on Institute evaluations during the year. The vehicles are required to have electronic stability control, or ESC, to qualify for the award. Earlier this year, the Institute said vehicles would need to receive its highest score in its roof strength evaluation to qualify the safety pick designation.