Insurance Institute for  Highway Safety - Where they carry out the crash tests.
IIHS compliance - Insurance Institute for  Highway Safety.

Vehicle Safety Compliance

The Office of Vehicle Safety Compliance, investigates compliance with Federal motor vehicle safety standards and associated regulations, and to this end may verify that manufacturers certify compliance with all applicable safety standards collect field reports from all sources. Inspect manufacturers certification test data and other supporting evidence, including dealer communications, inspect vehicles and equipment already in use or new vehicles and equipment at any stage of the manufacturing, distribution and sales chain. Conduct selective compliance tests and Utilize other means necessary to conduct investigations.

IIHS Compliance

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) is a nonprofit research and communications organization funded by auto insurers. For decades the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has been a leader in finding out what works and doesn't work to prevent motor vehicle crashes in the first place and reduce injuries in the crashes that still occur. The Institute's research focuses on countermeasures aimed at all three factors in motor vehicle crashes (human, vehicular, and environmental) and on interventions that can occur before, during, and after crashes to reduce losses. In 1992 the Vehicle Research Center (VRC) was opened. This center, which includes a state-of-the-art crash test facility, is the focus of most of the Institute's vehicle-related research. The Institute's affiliate organization, the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI), gathers, processes, and publishes data on the ways in which insurance losses vary among different kinds of vehicles.

The IIHS (Insurance Institute Highway Safety) uses four ratings for each category, Good (best, green G), Acceptable (yellow A), Marginal (orange M) and Poor (worst, red P). Vehicles which score Good in all the various rating categories, or which have only one Acceptable category, are given Best Pick designations.

Insurance Institute Highway Safety

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety is an independent, nonprofit, scientific, and educational organization dedicated to reducing the losses — deaths, injuries, and property damage — from crashes on the nation's highways.

To determine crash worthiness — how well a vehicle protects its occupants in a crash — the Institute rates vehicles good, acceptable, marginal, or poor based on performance in high-speed front and side crash tests, a rollover test, plus evaluations of seat/head restraints for protection against neck injuries in rear impacts. To earn Top Safety Pick for 2010 a vehicle must have good ratings in all four Institute tests.