Aaron Brzozowski
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has awarded “Top Safety Pick+” honors to the newly-revamped, 2017 Lincoln MKZ mid-size luxury sedan, for demonstrating aptitude both in its structural crashworthiness and its available crash-avoidance tech.
The IIHS rates passenger vehicles’ crashworthiness in five categories – Small Overlap Front, Moderate Overlap Front, Side, Roof Strength, and Head Restraints & Seats. The 2017 Lincoln MKZ sedan earned a top rating of “Good” in each of the five categories, where 2016’s model was only “Acceptable” in the Small Overlap Front crash test.
What’s more, the latest Lincoln MKZ’s forward collision prevention was rated “Superior,” versus the outgoing model’s “Basic” rating. In testing, the new model avoided frontal collisions at 12 and 25 miles-per-hour, and its forward collision warning system meets all National Highway Traffic Safety Administration criteria.
Additional available active safety systems on the 2017 Lincoln MKZ include a Pedestrian Detection component to its Pre-Collision Assist, Blind Spot Information System (BLIS) with cross-traffic alert, and a lane-keeping system that can automatically apply steering torque and alert the driver via vibrations should its onboard camera detect that the vehicle is drifting into another lane.
