2023 BMW X3 Named IIHS Top Safety Pick+
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety tightened the requirements for its prized Top Safety Pick+ honors for 2023, demanding better occupant protection in a side crash test as well as a passing grade in a nighttime pedestrian detection exercise. Now, BMW’s 2023 X3 SUV has taken the stricter requirements in stride, acing all tests and earning the accolade.
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Goodest of the Superiorest
IIHS rates static attributes such as occupant protection and headlight performance on a four-point scale — poor, marginal, acceptable and good — and dynamic systems such as collision avoidance and pedestrian detection on a scale of basic, advanced or superior. To qualify as a Top Safety Pick+, a vehicle must earn good ratings in three different frontal crashes and a side impact test; it also must include acceptable- or good-rated headlights as standard equipment. Its collision prevention system also has to score advanced or superior in daytime and nighttime pedestrian detection tests. (Prior to 2023, the pedestrian detection test was only performed in daytime conditions.)
Even among Top Safety Pick+ winners, the X3 stands out, earning the top grades (good or superior) in all required tests, including those in which a second-tier rating would have qualified it. Its only demerits dealt with what IIHS deemed an inadequately urgent seat belt reminder and Latch child safety system anchors that were buried too deep in the seat.
Top Safety Pick+ honors are almost a price of entry in the X3’s higher-end SUV class. Model-year 2023 rivals including the Acura MDX, Genesis GV70 and Lexus RX also make the agency’s list.
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