Two new Ford Motor Co. large sedans, seven midsize sedans including five from Volkswagen/Audi, and the compact Honda Civic have been given the first-ever "Top Safety Pick" awards by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

These new awards in two tiers, gold (highest) and silver, are given to vehicles that perform best in front, side and rear crash tests conducted by the institute, which is operated by the auto insurance industry.

The only large cars to receive the top award were the Ford Five Hundred and its Mercury counterpart, the Montego. But the institute said only models with the optional side air bags were deemed worthy of the award.

Among midsize cars, the largest segment in the industry at 40 percent of vehicle sales annually, seven received the "Top Safety Pick" designation. The Saab 9-3 and Subaru Legacy were gold award winners, while the Audi A3 and A4, Chevrolet Malibu with optional side air bags, and Volkswagen Passat and Jetta were silver award winners.

The institute said the Civic was the only small car to get the award. But Volkswagen markets the Jetta as a compact in the same class as the Civic. The institute included it in the midsize class, however, because of its larger interior volume. The A4 and A3 are about the same size as the Jetta, and are built on the same chassis architecture; they also could be considered small cars.

"Now that we're rating vehicles' front, side and rear crashworthiness based on test performance, we decided to give consumers an overall assessment based on all three tests," said Brian O'Neill, the institute's president.

No trucks or sport utility vehicles were included in the first round of awards because side-impact testing hasn't been completed on them, the institute said. Minivans were included, but none made the cut.

Notably absent from the first of these new awards are vehicles from Volvo, which has long held a reputation for building safe cars, and Toyota, whose vehicles are among the industry's best-sellers.

"A number of automakers requested early tests, and based on our discussions with the automakers we believe no other 2006 models would meet our Top Safety Pick criteria," O'Neill said.

The institute noted that most of the 10 winners are "relatively new designs, and they all have side air bags designed to protect people's heads.

This reflects the improvements manufacturers have been making in the side and rear crash protection afforded by their newer cars (most vehicles have afforded good occupant protection in frontal crashes for several years)."

Awards were given by vehicle size, but the institute did not compare the relative safety of one size of vehicle with another. It did note, however, that as a general rule, the larger the vehicle, the safer the occupants.

"Larger, heavier cars generally afford more protection than smaller, lighter ones," the organization said. "(The) picks indicate the best choices for safety within each size class, but they don't mean a small car that's an award-winner affords better protection than a larger car that didn't win a Top Safety Pick."

What that means to consumers is that these ratings are best when used to compare vehicles within a certain class. But the fact that seven of the 10 awards went to cars in the midsize class is important, O'Neill said.

"Evaluations are based on results of frontal offset crash tests at 40 mph. Each vehicle's overall evaluation is based on measurements of intrusion into the occupant compartment, injury measures from a (test) dummy in the driver seat, and analysis of slow-motion film to assess how well the restraint system controlled dummy movement during the test."

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