We’ve been talking a lot lately, directly or indirectly, about safety and how much that segment weights in car ratings nowadays. Reliability is always the No. 1 asset of Asian cars, but American and European ( England and Sweden to name a few) have taken pride in the past decade when it comes to Safety. Last years however have brought a shift in not just only inter-company views, but also in what matters for the buyers. Safety has become an important string, and a searched tag on car sites.

Volvo - a symbol of safety, passes well new tougher tests.

Things are about to change even more.

Shoppers looking to buy the safest 2010-model cars will have 67 fewer choices this year than they did in 2009. That’s because the test for safety ratings got a lot tougher.

Numers? A new roof-strength requirement aimed at protecting passengers in rollover crashes cut the number of top-rated vehicles to 27 for the 2010 model year, compared with 94 in 2009. Moreover, the  Insurance Institute for Highway Safety stressed the important of roof robustness in statistics regarding people killed in car crashes.

Sport-utility cars are obviously the most analysed, but also the most high ratted. Audi A3, Honda Civic, Dodge Journey and Ford Taurus are among the top big ones you can feel safe in. Auto makers with the most top-rated models include Subaru, a unit of Fuji Heavy Industries, with five vehicles making the cut. Ford Motor Co. and its Volvo unit had six top-rated vehicles, and Volkswagen AG and its Audi unit combined for five vehicles. Four Chrysler LLC vehicles got the top rating. General Motors Corp.’s Buick LaCrosse and Chevrolet Malibu are also on the list.