Toyota Venza and RAV4 Prime Earn Top IIHS Honors
The Toyota Venza and RAV4 Prime, both all-new electrified Toyota SUVs, have been recognized with the highest safety awards from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
At the LE trim level, the 2021 Toyota Venza earned the 2020 IIHS Top Safety Pick award. The Venza XLE and Limited, which add specific LED headlights, did even better to earn the Top Safety Pick+ award, one of the most coveted honors in the automotive industry.
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It’s a similar story for the 2021 Toyota RAV4 Prime. The SE and XSE earned the Top Safety Pick award, while the XSE with the Technology Package was named a Top Safety Pick+ award winner.
The new Toyota Venza marks the return of the nameplate after a four-year hiatus, and has been described as a more upscale RAV4 Hybrid. Meanwhile, the RAV4 Prime is the first plug-in hybrid variant of the automaker’s bestselling SUV. Both deliver an exceptional combination of performance and fuel economy.
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To earn a 2020 IIHS Top Safety Pick award, both SUVs had to earn the highest “good” rating in a battery of crashworthiness evaluations that covers everything from roof strength and head restraint quality to notoriously difficult small overlap front crash tests.
Additionally, they had to earn at least an “advanced” rating for vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-pedestrian front crash prevention. Both the Venza and the RAV4 Prime did better than necessary in this category, earning the maximum “superior” score thanks to the Toyota Safety Sense suite of driver-assistive and active safety features that comes as standard equipment on all modern Toyota models.
The Venza and RAV4 Prime even earned the best possible G+ score for their LATCH child seat anchors, which is not factored into the IIHS Top Safety Pick awards. Both SUVs had easy-to-find and easy-to-use tether anchors at all three rear seating positions, making them top choices for families with young children.
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.