While the Europeans have to rely on the NCAP’s safety ratings for new cars, Americans have two institutions each performing a different series of tests. And when they both give a car their top safety ratings, it must be pretty darn safe! That is the case with the 2013 Honda Civic sedan, which has both a 5-star rating and a Top Safety Pick award.

In fact both the 2013 Honda Civic Sedan and Coupe are the first and only small cars to earn the IIHS’ highest safety rating of TOP SAFETY PICK+, and the NCAP 5-Star Overall Vehicle Score. Looking at the list of the Civic’s standard safety kit, it is easy to see why.

The new Civic sedan comes with Honda’s next  generation Advanced Compatibility Engineering (ACE) body structure, which is the main reason it passed the IIHS’ new small overlap frontal crash test. Designed to simulate what happens when the front corner of a vehicle collides with another vehicle or an object at high speed, this test really challenges the rigidity of the vehicle’s structure, which is crucial in keeping the occupants safe.

Other standard safety features the Civic family is blessed with include Vehicle Stability Assist (VSA) with traction control; an Anti-lock Braking System (ABS); side curtain airbags; dual-stage, multiple-threshold front airbags; and driver and front passenger side airbags.