2009 Audi Q5: An IIHS Top Safety Pick

Marty Padgett

1,036 views Jun 9, 2009

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2009 Audi Q5

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The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) says the 2009 Audi Q5 is among the safest vehicles on the road.

The IIHS--an insurance industry-funded testing body that crash-tests new vehicles--says the 2009 Q5 earns "good" ratings in all three of its tests. The agency uses front-end, side-impact and rear-impact crash tests to assign ratings to new cars and trucks it chooses for testing.

The IIHS' crash tests also are considered more difficult to pass than those from the federal National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which crash-tests cars and trucks at lower speeds and assigns star ratings to the results. The Audi Q5 received five stars from the NHTSA in all three crash tests.

Because the 2009 Q5 earns five stars in front, side and rear impacts, and has standard stability control, the IIHS adds on its "Top Safety Pick" designation. It joins the Audi Q7 sport-utility vehicle, and the A3, A4 and A6 passenger cars in earning the designation.

Stay tuned: TheCarConnection.com has a Q5 in our corporate driveway this week, and we'll bring you a full Bottom Line road test later this week, along with some interesting comparisons between the Q5 and the Lexus RX, the Volkswagen Tiguan and Touareg, and a few mystery crossovers in the same price bracket.