Big Sedans Are Still Some Of The Safest New Cars On The Road

Buying a new car? Even if it’s not your top priority, you’ll want to at least take safety ratings into account. Fortunately there are organizations dedicated to crash-testing every new car on the market and telling you how safe they are as a result.

Two of those organizations have just performed their latest round of testing, awarding their top ratings to several new models – and highlighting which ones didn’t make the cut, and why.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety tested an array of large sedans, pinning Top Safety Pick+ ribbons to the Lincoln Continental, Mercedes E-Class, and Toyota Avalon. In fact the optional headlights on the Benz “earn the highest score of any headlights IIHS has rated,” which is a heck of an endorsement from a body that pays particular attention to illumination.

The Tesla Model S, however, missed out once again on the highest honors after the crash-test dummy’s head struck the steering wheel through the airbag in the small overlap test. The IIHS attributes the problem to the seatbelt, whose design Tesla modified, but still failed to hold up. There were also some concerns over deformation of the front structure where additional batteries are found in high-performance variants. The Tesla’s headlights didn’t perform particularly well, either.

Neither the Chevy Impala nor the Ford Taurus performed well enough in crash and headlight testing to earn top ratings, either.

Meanwhile, Europe’s New Car Assessment Program (Euro NCAP) evaluated several new models as well and handed a number of them five-star ratings – including several large sedans like the Volkswagen Arteon and Opel Insignia. However a couple of smaller hatchbacks also earned five stars – namely the Seat Ibiza and Hyundai i30 – as did the Alfa Romeo Stelvio. The Honda Civic, somewhat surprisingly, earned only four stars, “let down by lower-than-expected protection offered to children.” And the Ford Mustang, though improved from last year’s two-star rating, still only earned three stars for 2017 – despite a five-star rating from the NHTSA in America.

Video