ARLINGTON, VA - The new Buick Regal has drawn the Top Safety Pick award from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

The 2011 Buick Regal drew the highest rating possible -- "good" -- for front, side, rollover and rear-impact protection.

In addition to "good" crash test ratings, winners of the award must have electronic stability control -- an important crash-avoidance feature. This feature is standard on the Regal.

The Regal is the seventh vehicle from General Motors to earn the award since the IIHS implemented a new roof-strength requirement for protection in rollover crashes. In this test, a metal plate is pushed against one corner of a vehicle's roof at a constant speed. The maximum force sustained by the roof before five inches of crush is compared to the vehicle's weight to find the strength-to-weight ratio.

The roof of the Regal withstood a force equal to nearly five times the car's weight. For comparison, the current federal standard is 1.5 times weight.

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