The U.S. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety just released its Top Safety Pick and Top Safety Pick+ award winners for 2014, but not before tightening up its regulations for its testing.
To qualify for the Top Safety Pick award, vehicles are now required to score an ‘Acceptable’ rating or better in the IIHS’ evaluations, including the ‘small overlap’ test. As for the Top Safety Pick+, an automaker needs to offer some sort of forward collision warning or automatic braking systems on the car being evaluated, in addition to acing all five tests.
As a result, 39 vehicles qualified for the IIHS’ top accolades, a sharp decline from the 130 on last year’s list. Honda earned Top Safety Pick+ honours with the Civic, Accord and Oddysey minivan, as well as the Acura RLX and MDX. Subaru follows with three cars qualifying for the award, including the Legacy, Outback and Forester. Other winners include Mazda with its 3, 6 and CX-5, Volvo with its S60, S80 and XC60, the Ford Fusion and the Infiniti Q50.
Meanwhile, Top Safety Pick winners include the Chevrolet Spark, Hyundai Elantra, Kia Optima, Acura TL and the Mitsubishi RVR. The Volvo XC90, which hasn’t seen any major changes since 2003, is also a Top Safety Pick winner, and Toyota regained its spot on the list with the Camry.
