Mazda has been doing pretty well recently and has been using its success to give back where possible. And with the possibility of the brand reintroducing the rotary engine to its lineup, we're excited about what the future holds for the Japanese automaker. But as much as we're most interested in performance, safety is just as important a criterion for a brand's success, and Mazda has been exemplary with its model year 2021 offerings. Almost every single car in the 2021 range has achieved the coveted Top Safety Pick+ award from the IIHS, with the exception of the MX-5 Miata and its RF counterpart which were not tested. This essentially means that Mazda's offerings are safer than any of its rivals' direct counterparts.

Tests conducted by the IIHS are especially crucial to a car's reputation in terms of safety since the agency conducts tests called the driver-side small overlap front and passenger-side small overlap front. These tests were first introduced in 2012 and are "designed to replicate what happens when the front left (or right) corner of a vehicle collides with another vehicle or an object like a tree or utility pole," according to the IIHS. These tests are very specific but very important, and many cars that perform exceptionally in other safety measurements fail here. But not Mazda's offerings, meaning an impact from any direction has been accounted for in the vehicles' development.

What's more impressive still is that even Mazda's SUV offerings like the CX-30 have held up well in rollover tests, where raised vehicles usually struggle. So if you're looking for a new car, it may be time to consider the CX-30, or else the Mazda3 sedan or hatchback, Mazda6, CX-3, CX-5, or CX-9. However, if you do decide to go for the CX-30, just bear in mind that only those models built after September 2020 were rated so highly by the IIHS.

Mazda's i-Activsense suite of safety features includes adaptive cruise control, forward collision mitigation with pedestrian detection, and adaptive lighting, among other features. These collision avoidance measures are also crucial to picking up accolades from the IIHS, as any modern car without these is ineligible.