The Camry Cleared the IIHS Bar That Tripped Up the Accord

In March, the 2026 Toyota Camry won an IIHS Top Safety Pick+ under the institute’s toughest criteria yet, while the Honda Accord settled for the lower Top Safety Pick.

The institute raised the bar for 2026 in two ways. A Good rating in the updated moderate overlap front test, which measures how well a rear-seat passenger is protected, is now required for either award, and the top award also requires at least an Acceptable rating in a tougher vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention test run at 31, 37 and 43 mph with passenger car, motorcycle and semitrailer targets. The crash avoidance systems that earn those ratings must also be standard equipment.

The IIHS named its 2026 winners on March 24, when 45 vehicles qualified for Top Safety Pick+ and 18 for Top Safety Pick. In the midsize car class, the Camry and the Hyundai Sonata took the plus award and the Accord earned the base award. "This year, we’re asking automakers to make excellent protection for back seat passengers the norm," IIHS President David Harkey said in the release.

The Camry’s rating page shows Good scores in the small overlap front test, the updated side test and the updated moderate overlap test, plus Good ratings for vehicle-to-vehicle and pedestrian front crash prevention from the standard Toyota Safety Sense 3.0. The headlights rated Acceptable on every trim, which is enough to qualify, and the seat belt reminders and LATCH child-seat anchors both rated Good.

The Camry’s scores weren’t perfect. In the moderate overlap test, the rear passenger dummy’s head, neck, chest and thigh measures all rated Good, but restraints and dummy kinematics rated Acceptable, and in the side test the rear passenger’s pelvis measure was Acceptable. Neither result was serious enough to lower the overall ratings.

The ratings apply to 2025 and 2026 Camrys, and the IIHS ran its crash tests on 2025 models, the first year of the current hybrid-only generation. The 2025 Camry also earned Top Safety Pick+, so this is the second straight year the redesigned car has won the top award. The Prius and the Tundra crew cab are Toyota’s other 2026 award winners. The 2027 Camry, which carries over unchanged, hasn’t been rated yet.

The Toyota Report Take

The rear-seat test is where family cars are separating this year, and the Camry passed it in a class where the Accord didn’t earn the top award. That matters more than the badge itself, because a Camry is very often the car that carries kids and grandparents in the back. Toyota should still look at the restraint result, since an Acceptable subscore is the kind of margin a future, stricter test could take away, and the Acceptable headlights are an easy fix for a car at this price.