2016 Subaru WRX Earns IIHS' Top Safety Pick Plus Award
For the first time since its redesign for the 2015 model year, the Subaru WRX has earned the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s highest rating, Top Safety Pick Plus. The 2016 WRX has collision-mitigation systems previously unavailable on the performance version of the Impreza sedan, making it eligible for the designation. The 2015 model year was the first time the institute deemed the WRX different enough from the Impreza to warrant separate testing; in May 2014 it received Top Safety Pick status.
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The highest-possible superior rating for front crash prevention put the 2016 WRX over the top for IIHS’ top honor. The sedan is equipped with Subaru’s EyeSight driver assistance system, which uses stereo camera technology to detect objects such as vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists, in addition to precollision braking. The WRX also received the necessary good ratings in IIHS’ other crashworthiness evaluations, including small and moderate overlap front, side, roof strength and head restraints; those scores mirrored the 2015 version’s performance in the same tests.
Of the WRX’s performance in the small overlap front test, IIHS remarked that “the dummy’s position in relation to the door frame, steering wheel, and instrument panel after the crash test indicates that the driver’s survival space was maintained well,” and that “the frontal and side curtain airbags worked well together to keep the head from coming close to any stiff structure or outside objects that could cause injury.”
