IIHS Announcement of "Top Safety Picks" is Out to Lunch

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) announced this week its "top safety picks" amongst 2010 autos. IIHS performs an invaluable task in identifying cars that are safe for consumers. You can read their list of selectees here. Motortrend also has a good pictorial.

What I cannot accept though is IIHS' use of the word "top" in its selection. "Top" in no way describes the selectees. 52 cars were tested and 27 were selected as "Top Safety Picks." This huge number of selectees yields a fifty-two percent selection rate. Hey IIHS: Let me recommend you call your selectess "Top Half Safety Picks." If that doesn't sound good it's because it's not.

You hardly ever hear college-bound students brag about scoring a 21 on their ACT because this is the average.

I suspect you rarely hear somebody brag about having an IQ of 100 because this is the average IQ score.

General Electric has always prescribed to a philosophy that if it can't be either number one or two in an industry, it has no business of being in it.

IIHS: Do us all a favor and award the "top safety picks" to those that are truly top in safety. We the consumer should not be considered dumb. Unemployment rates are at all time highs and many 401ks have been reduced to 201ks. Consumers value the money in their car budget. Do us the favor of restricting your "top safety picks" to the top two of each car segment. Those that don't finish in the top two of their category but meet minimum criteria can be given a "Pass." Those that fail to meet minimum criteria can be referred to as a "Fail." It's that simple. If you want to have a larger listing, you can also rank the tested cars from best to worst regardless of generic "pass" or "fail" score.

Keep up the great work IIHS, but remember you can do a better job.