Everybody likes to pile on Italian cars for alleged quality and reliability issues, but there's no denying that the 2017 Alfa Romeo Giulia is one properly safe car.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) announced Tuesday that the 2017 Giulia earned its Top Safety Pick+ award, the highest such accolade given out from the non-government organization.

In order to achieve this, the Giulia needed to withstand the IIHS' battery of crash tests, including the difficult small-overlap test. The Giulia did exactly that, achieving the highest rating of Good for each and every crash test.

Safest cars of 2018

The IIHS also factors crash prevention and headlights into its award. The Giulia achieved a crash-prevention rating of Superior, thanks to its optional automatic emergency braking and forward collision warning. On the headlight front, the Giulia was ranked Good, but only with the optional adaptive HID projector headlights with auto high beams -- the base-trim headlights were rated Poor for excessive glare and fair visibility in curves.

The only thing preventing a perfect score was the child-seat tether system. The LATCH anchors were docked for being too deep in the seat, making maneuverability difficult for parents hooking up a child seat. Here, the Giulia was only rated Marginal.