WASHINGTON – Thirteen cars and trucks from foreign brands won “Top Safety Pick” honors for 2007 models from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, including seven varieties of SUVs.

The insurance institute says the models got good grades in tests of front and side crashes, offer protection from whiplash injuries and come equipped with electronic stability control. The requirements were toughened from last year’s ranking with the added requirement of electronic stability control, knocking out the Ford Five Hundred and Chevrolet Malibu sedans.

IIHS, the insurance industry’s research division, said it also tightened the requirements for protecting passengers from rear crashes that can cause whiplash.

While not as serious as many other injuries, whiplash is the most commonly reported problem from car crashes, costing insurers about $8.5 billion a year in claims, according to the insurance institute.

The institute said 17 other models would have qualified for a top pick if they had offered better whiplash protection.

“Protection in rear crashes is an area where many vehicles lag behind in safety,” Insurance Institute President Adrian Lund said in a statement. “As manufacturers continue to improve seat/head restraints, we expect to see more winners.”

Honda and Subaru each had three models on the list, while Audi had two.

The list includes four cars – either midsize or large – seven SUVs and two minivans. Pickups were not included because IIHS has not tested them for side-impact safety, and no small cars were recognized because they lacked stability control.

The institute said two carmakers changed their vehicles specifically to earn the award, with Audi redesigning its headrests and Subaru speeding the rollout of electronic stability control in its models.

Ford is expected to earn one of the institute’s picks when it rolls out the 2008 model of its Freestyle SUV with stability control.

The tests the insurance institute uses to measure vehicle safety are tougher than the federal government’s crash-test program. The institute’s frontal crash hurtles the driver’s side of a vehicle into a barrier at 41 mph, while its side-impact test smashes a truck-shaped platform into a vehicle’s side at 31 mph.