The 2008 Nissan Rogue was among the small SUVs that got top safety marks in an industry survey.Erich Merkle, an auto analyst with Crowe Chizek and Co., said the small SUV segment is holding up compared with larger SUVs and as consumers demand more safety features.“People aren’t leaving the segment. They are shifting down to smaller more fuel-efficient versions,” Merkle said. “You don’t have to go cold turkey to find a vehicle that gets better gas mileage.”

WASHINGTON — Six small sport utility vehicles, gaining in popularity with consumers for their fuel-efficiency, got top safety marks in an industry survey released this week.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, an industry-funded group that prods automakers to add safety features to their vehicles, said in a report that the 2009 Ford Escape and its corporate cousins the Mercury Mariner and Mazda Tribute, as well as the 2008 Mitsubishi Outlander, 2008 Nissan Rogue and the new 2009 Volkswagen Tiguan, all earned “good” ratings in the front, side and rear-crash protection tests.

On the other end of the scale, the group dinged the Jeep Patriot, Jeep Wrangler, Suzuki Grand Vitara, Chevrolet Equinox and the Pontiac Torrent, awarding them mostly marginal or acceptable ratings.

The Arlington, Va.-based organization had particularly harsh words for the 2008 two-door Jeep Wrangler, which has optional side air bags. The insurance institute said the driver door opened during the crash test. “We’ve rarely seen a vehicle go in the wrong direction and get a worse rating after it had been redesigned,” President Adrian Lund said.

“No single crash test provides a full picture of a vehicle’s crashworthiness,” Chrysler spokesman Max Gates said. The Jeep Wrangler “meets or exceeds all applicable federal safety standards, and performed well in the government’s crash test program.”

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety noted that all of the vehicles tested now have electronic stability control (ESC) standard, an anti-rollover technology that will be required on all vehicles by the 2012 model year. In contrast, in 2003, most small SUVs got either marginal or poor ratings in side tests and ESC was “rare,” the institute said.