In case you needed one more reason to shop Cadillac’s BMW 3-Series-fighting compact sedan, the ATS, here it is: the NHTSA has awarded both rear-wheel drive and all-wheel drive variants with five stars in rollover, side impact, frontal offset and overall crash testing, based on its latest (and more stringent) evaluation criteria.

The five-star certification puts the 2013 Cadillac ATS in the same category as BMW’s four-door 2013 328i, which also received five stars overall. It’s worth pointing out that the ATS score five stars across all tests, while the BMW only managed four stars in frontal crash testing.

Another likely competitor is the 2013 Audi A4, which matches the Cadillac ATS’ perfect scores in all crash tests, but lacks the lane departure warning feature available on ATS models.

We’ve heaped praise of our own on the ATS, and over the course of the year Cadillac’s newest compact offering has also picked up awards from the Motor Press Guild (which named it “Vehicle of the Year”) and Popular Mechanics (the “Excellence Award” in the luxury segment).

If you’re shopping for a compact luxury sedan, we say the 2013 Cadillac ATS is worthy of your consideration, and goes a long way to banish the ghosts of entry-level Cadillacs past (like the Cimarron and Catera).