Toyota is famous for making some of the world’s safest cars. Not only do Toyota’s cars do well in crash tests, but Toyota also loads them up with a ton of smart safety features. As a result, the Toyota Camry is one of the world’s safest cars. Here’s how safe it really is.

How the Toyota Camry performed in its crash tests

There are two major safety agencies in the U.S. that test the safety of a car. These two agencies are the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, or the IIHS, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or the NHTSA. Both of these agencies said that the 2020 Camry is one of the safest cars on the road today, according to U.S. News.

In fact, the IIHS thinks that the 2020 Camry is so safe that it awarded the Camry with its highest safety award possible, the Top Safety Pick+ award.  The IIHS only hands those awards out to the safest cars on the market, so that’s just a testament to how well the 2020 Camry performed in the IIHS’s crash tests. Indeed, the IIHS gave the Camry a safety rating of “good,” which is the highest rating available, in every crash test category. 

The NHTSA had similar findings in its crash tests for the 2020 Camry. The NHTSA gave the 2020 Camry an overall safety rating of 5 out of 5 stars. In fact, in every single crash test category, the NHTSA also gave the 2020 Camry 5 out of 5 stars. 

What smart safety features does the Camry have?

Crash tests are just one way that customers can determine how safe a car is. The other way is to find out what smart safety features that the automaker offers on the car, both as standard and as options. Toyota takes safety very seriously, so even though the Camry is a very affordable sedan, Toyota actually has many smart safety features as standard and as options for the latest model years of the Camry.

For example, U.S. News says that the 2020 Camry will come with Toyota Safety Sense-P, which is Toyota’s suite of smart safety features. Toyota Safety Sense-P gives the Camry smart safety features such as adaptive cruise control, forward collision warning, a pedestrian detection system, lane keep assist as well as lane departure warning, and automatic high-beam headlights, all as standard features. 

Many of those features aren’t usually standard on a car, but Toyota has made them standard on the latest Camry model years. Optional smart safety features that Toyota owners can add to their Camry include blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, and automatic emergency braking, according to U.S. News. 

The unsafe Camry model years that you should avoid

While the latest model years of the Camry are extremely safe, in fact, U.S. News gave the 2020 Camry a perfect 10 out of 10 for safety, not all model years are the same. About 10 years ago, the Camry, as well as several other Toyota models, suffered from catastrophic safety issues that ultimately led to a massive recall campaign as well as many people either getting injured or, unfortunately, killed.

Toyota has since fixed those issues, but if you’re looking to buy a used car, then you should probably avoid choosing those model years of the Camry. The most problematic model years were the 2007 to 2009 model years. But, on the bright side, those major safety issues taught Toyota to take safety even more seriously. As a result, the Camry model years since then are some of the safest cars on the market today.