The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has revealed its latest round of crash test results, and it’s been a mixed bag for Toyota. The IIHS conducts a wide array of crash tests to work out which cars are currently the safest on American roads.
Each year, there is an array of overall ratings, and the agency recently released the latest Top Safety Pick+ awards detailing which cars it has picked as the safest and which ones have some room for improvement.
As one of the manufacturers with the biggest presence in America, it was no surprise that Toyota featured on the list, this time with the 2026 Toyota Tacoma crew cab pickup truck. You might expect a company like Toyota to breeze through these rankings, particularly as the Tacoma is such a popular part of the company’s lineup. This time, though, things were a bit different.
It was a mixed bag for the 2026 Tacoma, which had some very good ratings, but it didn’t even reach an ‘acceptable’ score when it came to the moderate overlap front crash safety test. In fact, the IIHS said that it was only ‘marginal.’
This Is How the 2026 Toyota Tacoma Did in the Tests
The test aims to find out what happens when a vehicle collides head-on with either an oncoming vehicle or a fixed offset barrier. While accidents of this nature are quite rare, manufacturers must take them into account when designing a car. Otherwise, it could lead to some pretty serious injuries.
The test sees each vehicle propelled at 40mph towards a deformable aluminum barrier. Around 40 percent of the front of the car strikes the barrier. This tests how well the front crumple zones and subframe rails crush during an accident. These redirect energy away from the safety cell, ensuring the occupants inside the car are as protected as possible.
A second crash test dummy has also been added, starting in 2022. The passenger sides of cars sometimes lag in terms of technology and the like. So the IIHS wanted to see what could be done to increase safety in that area. If a manufacturer wants a good rating from the test, then the car has to be able to protect the driver and the passengers inside. The vehicle also has to prove that the occupant behind will not suffer excessive forces or dangerous movement in a crash.
What the Tests Said About the 2026 Toyota Tacoma
The tests showed that the dummy in the Toyota rebounded from those initial forces. The rear safety belt then caused the lap belt to wrap up higher than the pelvic bone. This would cause severe internal organ damage due to how it rode up onto the soft tissue of the abdomen. As a result, when it came to this test, the 2026 Tacoma only scored a ‘marginal’ on the chart. Everything else was ranked as Good, except for one acceptable area.
Other cars fared better. Right at the top of the survey was the 2026 Audi A6, which scored well in every category. Quite a few other cars beat the 2026 Tacoma, including the BMW X1, Mazda CX-5, and the Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid. Clearly, Toyota needs to look at this data and try to improve the pickup truck.