The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety released test results for several minivans and small cars this week, and headliners are the all-new 2006 Kia Sedona and the restyled 2006 Subaru Impreza. Each earned the Institute’s top safety pick for frontal, side, and rear crashworthiness. IIHS president Adrian Lund called the Kia Sedona “the best minivan we’ve tested,” noting that it is the first in its class to “get a clean sweep of good ratings across the board.” Subaru upgraded side protection for the reskinned 2006 Impreza, and the result is what the IIHS called “the gold standard among small cars,” though consumers should be reminded that the Honda Civic also received top IIHS scores in previous testing.

The IIHS also tested a hybrid vehicle for the first time. The Toyota Prius scored a Good rating in the frontal test, and when equipped with optional side-impact airbags received a Good rating for the side test. Without the side-impact airbags, the Prius received the Institute’s lowest rating of Poor – which underscores how important these safety devices are, especially in smaller vehicles. The Prius also got a Marginal rating for its head restraints, which do not do a very good job of protecting against whiplash. Side-impact airbags didn’t help the quartet of General Motors minivans: the Buick Terraza, Chevrolet Uplander, Pontiac SV6, and Saturn Relay. Even with the optional side airbags, these minivans received a Marginal rating for the side impact test, due mainly to the fact that the rear seat attachment points broke in two consecutive tests. Without side airbags, these minivans get a Poor rating.

Maybe GM can unload the tooling for these lousy minivans on Russia, which seems to be interested in producing outdated and outclassed American iron under license. Russian automaker OAO GAZ is buying the tooling used to produce the Chrysler Sebring and Dodge Stratus sedans, everybody’s reviled rental cars, and will produce as many as 65,000 of them after U.S. production ceases in May.