The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has just released its latest findings for 2010 cars and trucks, and the results may surprise you. Longstanding Top Safety Pick winners like Toyota and BMW were nowhere to be found on the institute’s list of the safest vehicles of 2010 -- not a single model from either manufacturer made the cut. Instead, the list was flooded with an unassuming Japanese carmaker. Nope, not Mazda or Suzuki. And only one Honda made the list. But Subaru managed to earn the coveted Top Safety Pick in each of the categories it was considered for – in other words, every Subaru vehicle is an IIHS Top Safety Pick.

While it’s not clear whether any other manufacturer has held this honor before, it’s obvious this is big news for Subaru. The company has long been overshadowed by its bigger brothers in Japan; it's been long relegated to the outdoorsy, granola-eating market. But with Subaru's rash of stylish new vehicles (not always the company's strong suit) and a deeply embedded passion for all-wheel-drive everything, more buyers than ever are beginning to take note of what the company has to offer.

The 2010 Legacy, for example, delivers bold styling, a quality interior and, most notably, up to 31 mpg when equipped with a continuously variable transmission. That’s an impressive figure for any sedan of this size, but with all-wheel drive as standard equipment it’s unparalleled. (Both the Legacy and the Subaru Outback were lauded as top safety picks in the midsize car category.) Now that Subaru can add the IIHS’s Top Safety Pick award to each of its products’ caps, the Legacy -- and indeed all the carmaker's models -- looks even more appetizing.

(Photo courtesy of Subaru.)