The 2000 Subaru Legacy earned the top rating for crashworthiness among seven midsize four-door cars in tests performed by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), a U.S. non-profit organization. The IIHS designated the Legacy as a "best pick" when it announced its results on April 11, 2000.

The IIHS evaluates the results of a 40 mph frontal offset crash test into a deformable barrier. Designed to measure the amount of intrusion in a driver-to-driver front-end collision, the frontal offset test is especially demanding of the vehicle structure. Ratings are based on performance in three categories: the ability of the front end to manage crash energy; injury to a dummy in the driver's seat; and performance of seatbelt/airbag and dummy kinematics (movement). The four ratings are good, acceptable, marginal and poor. The Legacy was the only one of the seven models in this test to receive an overall "good" rating.

"The occupant compartment, or safety cage, of the Legacy held together extremely well, and most injury measures recorded on the crash test dummy were low," said IIHS president Brian O'Neil. There is a greater likelihood of intrusion into the occupant compartment in a frontal offset crash than in a full width crash. "Lower intrusion measurements indicate a vehicle's safety cage and crumple zones are doing their jobs," added O'Neil. "Good structural design is the key to good performance in the offset test."

Full results of the tests are available on the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Web site at http://www.highwaysafety.org.