Front-Crash Findings: Few small SUVs excel in new IIHS front crash prevention test; only Subaru Forester secures ‘Good’ rating

Toronto, Ontario — Only the Subaru Forester has secured a ‘Good’ rating out of ten tested vehicles in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s (IIHS) new high-speed vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention evaluation.

The test, which evaluated vehicle performance with a motorcycle and semi trailer as well as a passenger car, aimed to address vehicle crashes that occur at higher speeds and those in which the struck vehicle is a motorcycle or large truck.

Of the vehicles tested, the Subaru Forester was the only ‘Good’ rating in the updated test.

Comparatively, the Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4 were rated ‘Acceptable,’ and the Ford Escape, Hyundai Tucson and Jeep Compass earned a ‘Marginal’ rating.

Coming in last, the Chevrolet Equinox, Mazda CX-S, Mitsubishi Outlander and Volkswagen Taos all rated ‘Poor.’

“This is a vital update to one of our most successful test programs,” IIHS President David Harkey said. “The vast majority of new vehicles now come with automatic emergency braking, and our research shows the technology prevents as many as half of all front-to-rear crashes. This new, tougher evaluation targets some of the most dangerous front-to-rear crashes that are still happening.”

The original vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention evaluation was developed when the technology was still relatively new, and as a result, only addressed low-speed crashes. By the time the original evaluation, with test runs at 12 mph and 25 mph, was discontinued at the end of 2022, all tested vehicles were earning the top rating of ‘Superior.’

According to a recent press release from the IIHS, while real-world data indicate that front crash prevention eliminates higher-speed crashes, the original test didn’t provide a way to gauge the performance of specific systems at those higher speeds.

To address these issues, instead of the earlier 12 and 25 mph speeds, the updated tests included trials at 31 mph, 37 mph and 43 mph or 50 km/h, 60 km/h and 70 km/h.

In the new evaluation, multiple trials were conducted with a target representing a passenger car, a target representing a motorcycle and an actual dry van trailer.

The trials using targets evaluated both the forward collision warning and automatic emergency braking (AEB) systems.

Points were awarded for warnings occurring at least 2.1 seconds before the projected time of impact and for substantial speed reductions in the AEB tests.

The ‘Good-rated’ Forester avoided a collision with the passenger car target at every speed, avoided hitting the motorcycle target at 31 and 37 mph and slowed by an average of 30 mph before hitting the motorcycle target in the 43 mph tests.

The forward collision warning alerts also came more than the required 2.1 seconds before the projected time of impact on all trials.

By comparison, the ‘Acceptable-rated’ CR-V provided a “timely” forward collision warning alert and came to a stop or near stop in every test with the passenger car target in the 31 and 37 mph trials with the motorcycle target. However, it failed to slow down consistently in the 43 mph trials with the motorcycle target.

Furthermore, even vehicles with a ‘Marginal’ rating in the new test demonstrate a higher level of performance than what was required for the highest rating in the original vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention evaluation.

To see individual vehicle results, check below:

Updated front crash prevention ratings: Small SUVs