Six Honda Cars Get IIHS Top Safety Pick Ratings
Six Honda cars have so far earned a Top Safety Pick rating or better from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, establishing them as among the safest cars on the roads today.
Three of the six earned the basic TPS rating. These were the Civic hatchback, Civic sedan, and CR-V SUV. Three others earned the more coveted TPS+ rating, including the Accord sedan, the Insight sedan, and the Odyssey minivan.
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Though many vehicles have also received TPS and TPS+ ratings in the past, the IIHS routinely revises its crashworthiness and safety evaluations, making them more and more rigorous and stringent over time.
For the 2021 model year, vehicles seeking to earn the basic TPS rating must earn the highest possible rating in all crash tests, including the historically difficult passenger-side small overlap front test, which was a new requirement for last year’s ratings.
All Honda models aced these tests thanks to the automaker’s Advanced Compatibility Engineering body structure, which is designed to protect occupants in a wide variety of collisions. Along with several restraint systems and newly designed airbags, occupants should feel pretty safe at the wheel of a modern Honda.
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Evaluated vehicles must also get an advanced or superior rating for front crash prevention, which every Honda on the list achieves via the Honda Sensing suite of active safety and driver-assistive features (read more about that here).
And finally, what differentiates cars with TPS+ ratings from those with mere TPS ratings is that the former must have standard headlights that provide acceptable or good illumination. Cars with TPS ratings can get away with those headlights being optional, not standard.
If any car doesn’t meet all these criteria, they simply don’t get the IIHS’s stamp of approval, and that’s generally a good sign that you should shop for a different ride.
Kurt Verlin was born in France and lives in the United States. Throughout his life he was always told French was the language of romance, but it was English he fell in love with. He likes cats, music, cars, 30 Rock, Formula 1, and pretending to be a race car driver in simulators; but most of all, he just likes to write about it all. See more articles by Kurt.