If you ask me, it doesn't seem all that easy to earn the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's coveted Top Safety Pick + honors. Every year it seems the organization is looking for a way to make the testing more difficult.
But, the automakers still manage to build high quality, safe products.
Although I reckon safety has taken a back seat for most buyers these days, unless you're shopping for a teenager, it is still a highly sought after accolade. Chrysler did it with the all-new 2015 200 sedan.
Now let's see if the 200 makes it outside of rental car lots.
2015 Chrysler 200 4-door sedan 40 mph small overlap IIHS crash test
Overall evaluation: Good
Chrysler's press release follows:
All-new Chrysler 200 aces small overlap front crash test, earns TOP SAFETY PICK+
ARLINGTON, Va. - The redesigned 2015 Chrysler 200, a midsize moderately priced car, earns the top rating of good in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's small overlap front crash test, a step up from the previous generation's rating of acceptable. With good ratings in all five of the Institute's crashworthiness evaluations, plus an available front crash prevention system that earns a superior rating, the 200 qualifies for the IIHS TOP SAFETY PICK+ award.
In the small overlap test, the driver's space was maintained well, and injury measures recorded on the dummy indicated a low risk of any significant injuries in a real-world crash of this severity. The dummy's head was well controlled by the frontal airbag, which stayed in position during the crash. The side curtain airbag deployed and had sufficient forward coverage to protect the head from contact with side structures. The 200 earns a good rating in every measurement category for small overlap protection including structure, restraints and dummy kinematics, and injury measures for the head and neck, chest, pelvis, and legs and feet.
The Institute added the small overlap evaluation to its testing lineup in 2012. In the crash, 25 percent of a vehicle's front end on the driver side strikes a rigid barrier at 40 mph. It replicates what happens when the front corner of a vehicle strikes another vehicle or an object such as a tree or a utility pole.
The 200 earns a superior rating for front crash prevention when equipped with its optional forward collision warning system with autobrake, part of a package called SafetyTec. In track evaluations, the system completely stopped the vehicle in the Institute's 12 mph test and significantly reduced the vehicle's speed in the 25 mph test.
To qualify for TOP SAFETY PICK+, a vehicle must earn a good or acceptable rating for small overlap protection, good ratings in the Institute's moderate overlap front, side, roof strength and head restraint tests, plus a basic, advanced or superior rating for front crash prevention.