New Chevy Malibu Ticks All The Right Boxes With IIHS Top Safety Award

The 2016 Malibu has picked top honors by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).

With “good” ratings across the board in the moderate overlap front, side, roof strength, head restraint and the challenging small overlap front, the sedan has followed its predecessor, but as history tends to repeat one way or another, engineers were still unimpressed by its headlights, grading them “poor”.

The redesigned Chevrolet Malibu is now available with front crash prevention system that includes Front Automatic Braking and City-Speed Front Automatic Breaking. When equipped with both, the car managed to avoid a collision in the 12 mph (19 km/h) test and slowed by an average of 24 mph (39 km/h) in the 25 mph (40 km/h) track test.

Dropping the Front Automatic Braking from the package and keeping the City-Speed has allowed the Malibu to avoid collision in the 12 mph (19 km/h) test and to slow down by 9 mph (14 km/h) in the 25 mph (40 km/h) test, dragging the car into the Top Safety Pick Plus award. Both systems are optional and meet the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) criteria.

The 2016 Chevrolet Malibu can be had from $22,500 in the L grade, while the range-topping Premiere will set you back for at least $31,795. The greenest version, the Malibu Hybrid LT, is on sale from $28,645.