Automakers have stepped up safety. Ten new vehicles have joined the 2011 Top Safety Pick winners list from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety for a total of 66 winners.

One of them is the 2011 Ford Explorer, which joins, for the first time, previous and current Ford SUV winners: the Ford Flex and Lincoln MKT. The all-new Ford Fiesta is the only minicar to earn the Top Safety Pick in 2011.

What’s not on the list? Pickups. None of the small pickups the Institute evaluated qualified for this year’s award, and large pickups haven’t yet been tested.

The front-running automakers on the list are Hyundai/Kia and Volkswagen/Audi that each have 9 winners for 2011. Next in line with 8 awards apiece are General Motors, Ford/Lincoln, and Toyota/Lexus/Scion. Subaru is the only manufacturer with a winner in all the vehicle classes in which it competes. Subaru earns 5 awards for 2011.

Notably, for consumers looking to buy a fuel-efficient small car, General Motors provides a new award-winning option with the Chevrolet Cruze. GM built the Cruze — which has 10 standard airbags, including ones for the knees — to outperform the government’s minimum roof strength requirements and touts the achievement as a selling point.

If you’re buying a new car, keep safety in mind and check out the full list of winners. Also, give us a call beforehand and we can let you know how much your new car will cost to insure before you buy. We can help you learn which safety features can earn you a discount on your ERIE auto insurance, too.