Insurance Institute for Highway Safety announces Honda Civic first small car to be awarded Top Safety Pick

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety announced Thursday five additional vehicles have earned the Top Safety Pick+ award and Honda Motor Co.’s Civic is the first small vehicle to attain the designation.

To be named a Top Safety Pick+, a vehicle would have to be assessed as having good occupant protection in at least four of five IIHS tests, and acceptable or better in the fifth test. 2013 vehicles must also get good or acceptable scores in IIHS’s small overlap test, introduced this year.

This brings to 18 the number of vehicles assessed Top Safety Pick+. In December, IIHS named 13 vehicles in the 2013 model year that received Top Safety Pick+.

Then on Wednesday, in addition to the Honda Civic 2 and 4-door, AB Volvo’s XC60, Mazda Motor Corp.’s Mazda 6 and Ford Motor Company’s Lincoln MKZ were also announced as attaining Top Safety Pick+. All are 2013 vehicles except the Mazda 6, which has been redesigned for the 2014 model year.

Both the Volvo XC60 and the two Civic models earned good ratings for small overlap protection, IIHS said, while the Lincoln MKZ and Mazda 6 got acceptable ratings for small overlap protection.

“The small overlap test is designed to replicate what happens when the front corner of a vehicle collides with another vehicle or object like a tree or utility pole,” IIHS stated, adding the 2013 Civic “received significant front structure upgrades to improve small overlap performance.”

Arlington, Va.-based IIHS evaluates vehicles at its testing centre in Ruckersville, Va.

In the existing moderate overlap frontal test, a vehicle travels at 40 miles per hour (about 65 kph) towards a two-foot (61-cm-high) barrier with a deformable face made of aluminum honeycomb. Forty percent of the total width of the vehicle strikes the barrier on the driver side, and a dummy is in the driver’s seat. IIHS says the forces in the test are similar to those that would result from a frontal offset crash between two vehicles of the same weight, each going just under 40 mph.

IIHS also does a side test, in which a barrier about the size of an SUV hits the driver’s side at 31 miles per hour (nearly 50 kph).

The rear collision tests, designed to evaluate the quality of head restraints, use a dummy with a spine with 24 articulated pieces to simulate the vertebrae. Vehicle seats and their attached restraints are fixed to a sled, which is accelerated to simulate a stationary vehicle being rear-ended by another vehicle of the same weight going 20 mph (about 32 kph).

In the fifth test, designed to measure safety in rollover accidents, a metal plate is pushed against one side of the roof. In order to attain a good rating, the roof must withstand a force of four times the vehicle’s weight before reaching five inches (about 12.5 cm) of crush. For an acceptable rating, it must withstand 3.25 times the vehicle’s weight before being crushed five inches.

IIHS is an non-profit organization that aims to reduce losses from auto collisions. It is supported by several insurance carriers plus the American Insurance Association, the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies and the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America.

The other 13 vehicles awarded Top Safety Pick+ by IIHS in December were:

•  Ford Fusions built after December, 2012;
•  Two- and four-door Honda Accords;
•  The Acura TL;
•  Chrysler Group LLC’s Dodge Avenger;
•  Chrysler 200 four-doors;
•  Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd.’s Subaru Legacy;
•  Subaru Outback, for vehicles made after August, 2012.
•  Kia Motors Corp.’s Optima;
• Nissan’s Altima (four-doors built after November 2012);
• Volkswagen AG’s Passats built after October, 2012;
• The Volvo S60; and
• The Suzuki Kizashi