The latest installment in a series of web videos from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety explores the ins and outs of frontal crash testing. "Inside IIHS: Frontal offset testing" explains the differences between the Institute's two frontal crash tests and demonstrates how structural performance, dummy injury measures and restraint systems affect a vehicle's frontal rating.

The video is available on the IIHS YouTube channel and is the second in the "Inside IIHS" series. The first video focused on crash test dummies.

Watch video

The 2014 Subaru Forester is the first vehicle to ace every aspect of the challenging small overlap front crash test. The Forester and the 2013 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport, which earns acceptable in the test, are the latest vehicles to qualify for the Institute's recently inaugurated top honor, Top Safety Pick+. Other tested small SUVs earn poor or marginal ratings for small overlap.

A new series of web videos provides a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the work of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's Vehicle Research Center. In "Inside IIHS," engineers explain the Institute's test programs and highlight some of the equipment they use in their research.

The first video, "Inside IIHS: Crash test dummies at work," is available on the IIHS YouTube channel beginning today. Learn what kind of dummies IIHS uses and how they help engineers evaluate vehicle crashworthiness.

More videos in this series will be uploaded weekly starting Tuesday, May 21.

Watch video

The Toyota RAV4, a small SUV, earns the Top Safety Pick award for good performance in the Institute's moderate overlap front, side, rollover and rear evaluations.

Toyota redesigned the RAV4 for 2013. One notable change is that the automaker improved the RAV4's roof structure to earn a good rating for rollover protection.

In the roof strength test, the new model's roof withstood a force equal to 5 times the SUV's weight. The previous generation RAV4, manufactured from 2006 to 2012, had a strength-to-weight ratio of 3.46, which equates to an acceptable rating.

Volvo's City Safety is preventing front-to-rear crashes for people who drive S60 cars, XC60 SUVs

More choices for buyers as automakers adopt systems

Vehicle Research Center project to allow more crash avoidance tests

Key child restraint strap is often overlooked and misunderstood by parents

In the nation's capital, solid support for automated enforcement